Sonic Earth 1: It All Begins Again
by GoldLeafGardenia
Summary: The adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog begin with a big bang! When a young Sonic defeats Dr. Robotnik's ultimate machine, it comes back at him in a few years when Robotnik comes back with many new plans. Now Sonic and his friends must defend Mobius from the notorious mad scientist, along with just living life. Enjoy the first installment of this re-imagining of Sonic the Hedgehog!
1. Chapter 1

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**PROLOGUE: AN AVERAGE DAY FOR A HERO**

Among the thousands of constellations and space clouds, floating with all of planets near and far, stood Mobius. The large, blue planet floated peacefully among the stars, as if quietly observing the scene before it.

Just outside of Mobius's orbit stood none other than a giant, circular spaceship with dark, glass eyes and enormous metal mustache: The Death Egg. the perpetual silence of space was quickly drowned out by metallic hisses, clicks, and whirrs deep inside the spaceship as it was prepared for world domination. Doomsday was well on its way.

That is, until the Death Egg began to ring with a loud, alarming beeping. Red lights began to blink on an off to signal what was wrong: It was an intruder!

_**KA-BOOM!**_

There was a blinding flash of light right before the bottom right side of the Death Egg exploded, sending smoke and debris out into space along with a tiny, golden form.

Dodging destroyed weapons, said golden form flew away from the explosion and up the spaceship, the metal armor almost touching the tips of his gloved fingers and shoes.

Right as the form flew above the left glass eye of the ship, it dove down so quickly and abruptly it would've been impossible to follow. The glass shattered upon impact, followed by another huge explosion from the energy the form gave off, destroying both eyes and leaving gaping holes in the formerly refined, rounded fortress.

The form continued flying, deeper and deeper into the fortress. Dodging robots that tried to shoot him and ricocheting off of boxes of supplies and metal bridges until, finally, he reached the very core. Among the chaos, the red lights and the metal pipes and huge gears, the form glowed brighter with each second that passed. The brightness grew stronger and stronger, until it was competing with the sun's light. Finally, for a split second, the light blinked, and the entire Death Egg exploded, sending destroyed robots, weapons, and supplies rocketing in all directions.

"_Noooo!_" Just barely escaping the explosion, a tiny red and black-and-yellow stripped hovercraft flew out of the Death Egg, the word "Robomobile" inscribed on the side of the tiny craft and a protective glass at the top, safely keeping inside the very round-looking man wearing black pants, a red shirt, yellow collar and blue glasses that obscured his eyes.

"My Death Egg!" The man shouted, hands gripping his bald head so hard that both his fingers and head began to hurt. Furious, he slammed his fists against the Eggmobile's dashboard; just before a golden glow caught his eye. "_Sonic!_" He roared, "You little…YOU LITTLE…!"

The glowing form floated a good ten feet away. He had finally stopped moving and allowed the man to get a good look at his most infuriating enemy to date. A small Mobian hedgehog who was barely more than eleven years old. His golden fur gleaming with a bright aura that his red and white-buckle shoes reflected. Floating around him were seven emeralds, each of a different color. It was Sonic the Hedgehog in his super form: Super Sonic.

"S'up, Doc?" Super Sonic asked, as casual as ever.

Dr. Robotnik had already hurt his head from gripping it so hard, and his dashboard couldn't take anymore violent hits, so he instead resorted to gripping his thick, bushy mustache. "You just destroyed my spaceship!" He roared, stating the obvious.

Grinning, Super Sonic looked down at the remains of what was once a brilliant, armed fortress. That was what he had come for. He had traveled for so long with his friends to finally defeat this thing. Now there was nothing but the floating remains of an empty metal shell surrounded by debris rapidly drifting away from it. This included a strange green light rapidly floating down to Mobius' surface. The Master Emerald. _Knuckles will be happy._ Sonic thought.

Turning back to Robotnik, all the supersonic hedgehog said was "Yep!"

"The Death Egg was my most brilliant plan! It was my one way ticket to dominating the world!"

"It was also was your only ticket, I bet."

"I WAS SO CLOSE TO ESTABLISHING MY EMPIRE, AND YOU RUINED IT!"

"Yeah…guess I was kinda last minute, huh?"

"You-you-YOU-_YOU!_"

"Me, me, me, me." Super Sonic shrugged, placing his hands behind his head and leaning back in a sitting position. "So, Doc, we gonna finish this, or what?"

"OH, I'LL BE HAPPY TO FINISH YOU OFF HERE, RUNT!" Dr. Robotnik furiously slammed his entire hand onto a red button on the dashboard. Immediately a slot opened on the side of the Robomobile, and a metallic hand holding a laser gun extended out, the tip of the gun pointed directly at Sonic. However, just before the trigger had been pulled, the emeralds around the hedgehog vanished and he charged forward, moving so fast that Robotnik could hardly even see him when he spin-dashed through the gun and hand, shattering both in a millisecond.

"Oh, come on!" Super Sonic said, standing on the glass right above the stunned Robotnik's head. The hero kneeled down and rapped the glass with a knuckle. "Is that all? I thought this was gonna be fun!" He sighed and shrugged before the dumbfounded scientist. "Oh well. Hold on tight, Doc!"

"W-_what the-!?_" Super Sonic disappeared again, and suddenly Dr. Robotnik lurged upwards for a second. "HEY! Knock that off!" Robotnik shouted all sorts of insults as Super Sonic grabbed the rim of the engine at the bottom of the craft, and began flying downwards towards Mobius.

Quickly, the dark, starry sky turned into a deep, late-afternoon blue as the two forms reentered Mobius' atmosphere. The Robomobile's metal became hot, but thankfully it was only the outer shell heating up. So the terrified, howling Dr. Robotnik inside could hold on to the beaten-up dashboard for dear life. Super Sonic didn't even feel the heat, his super form's energy quickly neutralized the burning, keeping his hand holding the hovercraft safe as he dragged it down. As he concentrated on staying in control of his flight, all he felt was the cold wind ripping at his face, making his eyes tear up, and he loved it.

Plummeting down, down, down, Super Sonic dragged the Eggmobile and Dr. Robotnik through all of the layers of clouds. Reluctantly, Super Sonic began slowing down a bit to keep from losing all control as they grew closer to the ground. It was a pity to do so, though. He was having fun!

Exploding out of the clouds, Super Sonic saw the land beneath him touching the horizon on all sides. Greens, grays, and blues swam before his vision, all patched with sunlight poking out of the clouds. Looking around for a place to land-and simply just enjoying the view-Super Sonic spotted a large lake surrounded by a lush, green field and grinned. _Perfect!_

Shifting his aim a little and letting go of the engine, Super Sonic leapt upwards to the top of the Robomobile, pressed his hands against the glass cover, and began pushing with all of his might. It was harder to keep control from the top, but it wasn't anything he couldn't manage.

While on his way down, Super Sonic couldn't resist grinning cheekily as his enemy. "Having fun!?" He shouted over the wind.

Dr. Robotnik shouted something through the glass, and although

Super Sonic couldn't hear it, he had the suspicion that the scientist had said something along the lines of what was not appropriate for a kid to hear.

The Eggmobile finally landed in the lake with a booming splash so loud and large it was as if a bomb went off in the water. Cold water flew in all directions, and the Robomobile was pushed into the depths, before fighting it's way back up.

Leaping out of the water, the Robomobile floated pathetically in the water, with a trembling and dizzy Dr. Robotnik inside. Blinking a few times to clear the stars out of his eyes, the mad scientist noticed his enemy had gone and began looking for him through the cracked glass, but he was nowhere to be found.

Until he heard a series of soft _tinks_ from behind. Whipping around in his chair-which abruptly snapped and sent him slamming into the rear dashboard-Dr. Robotnik saw the supersonic runt lying across a small rock island a few mere feet away, nonchalantly tossing small pebbles against his wrecked craft.

"Really, Doc?" The hedgehog asked, sounding annoyed. "Was that it? After going nuts over come crazy spaceship for a good few months, that's all the challenge I get? _Really?_ And after I smash it to bits, you try to take me down with a _gun? _Just a single gun? Seriously!?" He shook his head.

It was all that Robotnik could do to just half-sit, half-stand on his broken chair and just stare at the runt and sputter complete nonsense.

But really, who could blame him after being dragged all the way down from outer space to the ground in a mere two minutes, against his will at that?

As he tried to regain his composure, Robotnik watched as Super Sonic's energy began to wear off. The golden aura around the hedgehog faded, his upturned quills settled back into their streamlined position, and his golden fur slowly turned into light blue. Super Sonic faded away, leaving the hero of Mobius in its place.

"So, are we _really_ going to finish this, or are you just gonna run away?" Sonic asked sincerely, balancing a round pebble on his fingertips. "Is there anything else you got up your sleeve? 'Cause you generally try to surprise me."

Dr. Robotnik's response was to simply press a red button on the dashboard.

There was a huge rush of cold wind that sent a wave of water roaring across the lake. Sonic barely managed to avoid getting drenched as a giant, humanoid robot flew by-flying almost as fast as he could run-and in a flash Robotnik was gone along with the robot.

Sonic sighed, "Yeah, I figured." He didn't bother to follow for two reasons. One was that he didn't know where they went, and the other was that the battle was over for now. This was how it always went, Sonic defeated Robotnik's machines and the mad scientist ran off to formulate another crazy scheme. Generally he'd come back in a month or so.

"Sonic!"

A familiar voice caused Sonic's ears to prick up towards the sky. Looking up, he grinned when he saw his red seaplane, the Tornado, flying above his head, piloted by Miles "Tails" Prower. The Mobian fox toddler inside waved heartily. "_Hiiiiii!" _He shouted over the noise of the propeller.

"Hey, kid!" Sonic yelled back, waving. He watched incredulously as the four-year-old (yes, the _four-year-old_) brought the Tornado down and landed it expertly. Freezing cold steam rose from the buoys that replaced the wheels and billowed out behind the red plane. Tails easily turned the Tornado so as it gradually slowed it stopped right in front of Sonic's island. Even though Sonic has seen him do this before it still always impressed him.

"Hey kiddo," Sonic said, "You okay-_ack!_" He yelped out in surprise when suddenly as he was tackled down by the fox. Clumsily, he stumbled backwards and helplessly fell on his back. "Hey!"

"That was _awesome!_" Tails yelled in his ear, practically hopping up and down on his stomach, talking a mile a minute. "I was flying just above the clouds and I saw the spaceship, and I saw you blow it up!" He punched the air, mimicking explosion sound effects for emphasis. "And then I saw you drag Dr. Robotnik down, and I followed you guys and then I saw you drop him into the lake! And-and-and-!" He was so ecstatic that he took to the air, spinning his twin tails around like a helicopter. "_That was just so COOL!_"

"Okay, okay!" Laughing, Sonic stood up, rubbing his triangular ears as an attempt to soothe his aching eardrums and watching Tails fly around him excitedly, before he finally calmed down enough to land. As he did, Sonic took a grand bow. "I, the Hero of Mobius, gratefully thank thee for such praise. Thank you, thank you, thank you." He took a separate bow to punctuate each "thank you", resembling a bobble-head as he did so.

Tails doubled over laughing, and Sonic grinned. It was always easy to make little kids laugh.

When Tails had gotten a hold of himself, Sonic finally spoke up. "So squirt, care to give me the scoop?" Thinking of a red, short-tempered echidna and a very, _very _clingy pink hedgehog, he asked. "What happened to Knux and Ames?"

"Amy's gone to the nearby town," Tails said. "She told me she's going to set up the victory party for you. Knuckles is with her."

_A celebration huh?_ Sonic grinned. _Yeah, I guess we deserve that, after saving everybody!_ Playfully he ruffled the kit's fur. "Well, what're we waiting for? We deserve some celebration for, y'know, saving the world from the clutches of evil!"

"Yeah!" Tails agreed heartily. Quickly, the boys ran to the Tornado, Tails leaping in the cockpit while Sonic hopped up onto the wing of the plane, both of them were excited for some fun.

_Even if it means getting the life squeezed out of me by Amy the second we get there…_Sonic couldn't resist a shudder. _Girls are weird._

"Get OUT!"

The pink hedgehog charged forward, ready to attack the last remaining Buzz Bomber with her bare hands. The Buzz Bomber hissed and buzzed at her tauntingly, but before Amy could even come within five feet of it a red echidna slipped in from the side and slammed his spiked fists into the Buzz Bomber. The Badnik's metal shell cracked open and the robot fell to the ground, further shattering it and leaving it on the ground, buzzing weakly.

Amy pouted crossly. "I could've handled that thing."

Knuckles smirked. "Mm-hmm. Whatever you say." Amy bristled. She stormed forward and smashed her foot into the Bomber. "Die, robot!"

Knuckles watched in amusement as the eight-year-old took her irritation out on the robot's corpse. Before something caught his eye. "Hey!" Floating down towards him was the Master Emerald. A genuine grin playing on his face, he ran up and opened his arms wide. The giant Emerald gradually slowed it's fast pace, and landed gently in his arms. "Oh, thank goodness!" Knuckles exclaimed happily. "She's alright!"

He turned to Amy. "Can I go home now?"

"Not! Yet!" Amy snarled, punctuating each word with a stomp on the Badnik. "Sonic's! Not! Here!"

Knuckles growled in frustration. _Oh, come on!_ He'd got his treasure back, now he wanted to return home with it. But Amy had trapped him there with a party that he wasn't even going to attend.

Something caught his eye. "Isn't he?" He asked coolly, before heading off to get ready to leave.

Amy grumbled to herself, before her ears pricked up at the sound of propellers whirring. She grinned joyously. _Sonic!_

With the attacking Badniks gone, the fact that Amy had certainly gone all out with the preparations was truly visible. The entire town of Vennest seemed to have transformed. Streamers hung from trees and off of buildings. Balloons seemed to be tethered to every corner of…everything, actually. There were signs that said "Congratulations, Sonic!" or "Here's to Our Hero!" among many other variations. The town's citizens were everywhere, at picnic tables or lemonade stands, some children were even playing with confetti cannons in the cobblestone street.

When Sonic and Tails flew in on the plane, they were immediately surrounded by a group of Mobian children, all pining to get a look at their savior (and possibly his autograph). And of course, Sonic was glomped by Amy the very second the crazy fans had been satisfied.

Sonic could barely utter a squeak of alarm as Amy practically hugged the life out of him. "Sonic!" The pink hedgehog squealed, her voice was so high pitched Sonic could barely hear it. "I knew you could do it! I just knew it!"

Sonic, tried to wiggle out of her grip, only to groan when the hedgehog impossibly hugged him tighter-and he thought he heard something crack. "Hey-! Can't-breathe-!"

"Oh!" Amy quickly let him go, and Sonic promptly collapsed on the ground. "Sonic I'm so, so, _so_ sorry!" She kneeled down to try and help him up. "Are you okay?" She asked urgently, her voice taking on a grossly sweet tone of sympathy.

Gasping, Sonic stumbled to his feet. Behind him Tails stood in the cockpit, looking concerned. "I'm…cool…" He gasped, grateful for the cool air filling his lungs.

"Oh, thank goodness." Amy exhaled in relief…right before she went right back into "fan girl-mode" as Sonic would put it. "You were _sooo_ heroic!" She squealed, hopping up and down. "I wish I could have been there! You were so brave!"

Sonic grinned. "Heh, ah it was nothin'."

"What do you mean!? It was _everything!_ You were AMAZING!"

"Be careful." Knuckles' voice caught everybody's attention. "You're giving him an even bigger head."

Turning around, Sonic saw that a certain red echidna had returned, holding a fairly large, green emerald in his arms. It was Knuckles. "Oh, hey Knux." Sonic said.

"Sonic." Knuckles replied evenly, nodding his acknowledgement.

"That's the Master Emerald?" Sonic pointed to the green gem.

"Yep. Safe and sound." The echidna looked at the Master Emerald and smiled with the tenderness of a father.

"I thought it was bigger." Sonic said.

"It was, but as her guardian I can ask her to change her size." Knuckled explained. "I wished she could have shrunk a little more though, so she would be more inconspicuous." He gave a suspicious glare towards a Mobian mouse who has curiously approached him, eyeing the gem. She backed off immediately. "But she is still regaining her power."

_'She'? 'Her'? Geez, either this guy is really whacko or- _Sonic's thoughts were cut off by Amy.

"Y'know, you don't have to stay." She told Knuckles, looking rather annoyed. "If you wanna get going, then go!"

Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "I wanted to go over an hour ago!" He growled. "You kept the party on hold for twice that long!"

"That's 'cause Sonic wasn't here yet!"

Knuckled snerked. "Oh yeah, you should have heard her." The twelve-year-old mimicked Amy's loud, high-pitched voice, which was downright terrible-sounding with his unusually deep pitch. "'No! We can't start yet! Not until Sonic's here! He needs as much attention as he can get! Please wait! Please! Please! Please!'"

Amy was positively fuming, Sonic was biting his lip to keep from cracking up, and Tails could be heard muffling his giggles into the Tornado's control panel.

"Well, he's here now!" Amy snapped. "So go if you want to so bad!"

"No problem!" Knuckled replied, just as loudly. He looked at the Master Emerald, and Sonic's suspicion that he was a little crazy was confirmed when he said in a softer tone, "C'mon girl. Let's get you back to the Island." He turned around and ran off, surprisingly fast for the cumbersome emerald in his arms.

"Good riddance," Amy muttered furiously.

"Yeesh Amy, chill out." Sonic said, albeit somewhat nervously. He knew about what Amy could do when she was in a bad mood, and she was already on the edge. "Breathe." He added a little urgently. Tails hurried behind him, looking at the girl apprehensively.

Amy sighed heavily, silently using the counting technique and calming down at twenty-one. "I'm good…" She muttered. Sonic and Tails exchanged glances, before finally letting out sighs of relief in unison.

"So Ames, you planned this entire party?" Sonic asked.

Amy brightened a little, "Yeah."

"Nod bad at all." Sonic said, admiring the decorations

Amy smiled. "Only for the best!"

Sonic grinned. "So what are we waiting for? Let's party!"

The celebration had lasted well through the day, all of the Mobians in the town had participated. It was only until twilight did people start to tire out and head in for the night, until finally only two hedgehogs and one twin-tailed fox were left outside.

Just on the outskirts of the small town, up in one of the trees, Sonic dozed happily. The ordeals of the day, chasing after Robotnik, destroying the Death Egg, and having a celebration had left him a bit tired.

The sun peeked through a gap in the treetop, turning the green leaves orange and glowing in Sonic's face. Lying on a thick branch with his back against the trunk of the tree, his hands behind his head, Sonic took a moment to look out of the leaves surrounding him. The little gap among the leaves revealed the evening sky along with Mobius' neighboring planets sharing it along streaks of white cloud. Illuminating it all was a deep orange sun setting into the horizon, staring right at him and warming his fur, as if thanking him for what he did today.

Sonic smiled contently, closing his eyes once more and enjoying the sun's warmth on his face.

"Sonic!"

With a sigh, Sonic opened his eyes again and rolled over so he was looking downwards. At the base of the tree he spotted Amy waving up to him.

Another sigh. "Yeah, Amy?"

"The train's getting ready to go, I gotta get going!" During the party, Amy had told Sonic that by the evening the train heading for her village would be departing. "And I…" Amy seemed to get a little shy, she looked downwards and scuffed her sneaker against the roots of the tree. "…I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Cool." Sonic replied. He rolled over, latching onto his tree branch and dropping down in front of her. He offered his hand, ready for a high-five.

Amy looked down timidly. "Well…is it okay if we hug goodbye?"

Expecting, hoping, inwardly pleading for a short, gentle hug, Sonic decided to be nice and comply. After all, this would be the last time he'd see a friend and number-one fan (next to Tails, of course) for a while at least. So Sonic opened his arms-

-and immediately regretted it.

Sonic squeaked loudly when suddenly Amy locked her thin arms around his middle and began squeezing the life out of him for the second time that day. "Amy!"

"Oh Sonic!" Amy wailed into his ear. "I'm gonna miss you _so much!"_

"Ames! C'mon! I-I can't breathe!" Sonic choked out, feeling his airways being pressed closed. Geez! For such a tiny kid, how could she be so strong!?

And then came the goodbye kisses…

"AMY! _**EWW!**_Cut it out!" Sonic shrieked, feeling blood rushing to his cheeks as Amy covered his muzzle with smooches. He tried to wiggle and squirm out of the younger hedgehog's arms, but it was no use. That little girl had him in a death grip. "HELP! Somebody, _make it stop_!" He managed to strangle out.

At that, Amy finally released him, her attitude having turned indignant by his reaction. Sonic collapsed on the ground on all fours, gasping. "I wasn't hugging you that hard!" Amy cried.

Coughing, Sonic rubbed his throat and glowered at her out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah, yeah. Speak for yourself." Amy normally would have clobbered him, but since she was saying goodbye she actually felt a little hurt this time. She thought he would've appreciated her hug goodbye, or at the very least he'd be a little more patient with her since she was leaving.

"But…don't you like me, too?" She asked, her voice becoming as soft and demure as a hurt child's.

All of Sonic's quills stood erect in fear and he winced inwardly. How was he going to get out of this? Amy didn't seem to get it through her head that he only liked her as a friend and fan and that was it. She wholeheartedly believed he had a crush on her as big as hers on him. He didn't like to lie, but if he told the truth Amy would probably kill him! "Um…well, I-"

Before he could answer he was interrupted by a loud train whistle that reverberated throughout the area.

"Oh…" Amy sighed. "Well, I-I gotta go!" Quickly she planted one more goodbye kiss on the side of his head and was gone.

Rolling into a sitting position for a moment, Sonic just groaned and fell back in the grass. He gratefully thanked Mobius for getting out of that alive.

"Uh…Sonic? Are you okay?" Tails asked as he finished packing his things into the Tornado, which was floating placidly in the water at the edge of the town. In the trunk of the plane, along with his small toolkit and his backpack that held any Power Rings that he came across was the neatly-wrapped leftover cake from the party. Amy had let him have it as a farewell gift.

"Peachy." Sonic mumbled. His neck was sore from Amy's hugging, and his muzzle was still a little warm with embarrassment from Amy's smooching. Oh yes, he was _perfectly_ fine.

Despite being so young, Tails' immediately caught on, and giggled. Sonic just moaned. "You ready?"

"Uh-huh! Everythin's all set up." Tails patted the Tornado happily. "Amy was really nice to let us have the rest of that cake."

Sonic snickered at that, remembering how much Tails had…appreciated the party cake. The kit had been so excited he dived right in when the it was brought out, literally. It took about half an hour to get the icing out of the fox's fur, and half of the cake was left as a lumpy mess. "Kid, you've got a sweet tooth problem."

"Hey!" Tails gave an indignant squeal that would've melted

anyone's heart. Even Sonic had to fight back an endeared laugh. "Not funny…" He pouted when Sonic teasingly patted his head.

"So, should we get going?" Sonic asked. Tails' annoyed frown instantly faded with a childish smile. "Sure!"

Both boys leapt onto the plane just as they had earlier that day. Tails started up the plane, and with Sonic balancing on the wings, the Tornado took off into the orange sky. Hundreds of water droplets flew off of the buoys of the plane, catching the sunlight before they landed into the body of deep blue lake water below.

Neither of them new where they were going exactly, but that was the best thing about a new adventure, in Sonic's opinion.

And so the adventurers parted ways. They were all so grateful that, after their big adventure, they finally had time to relax. They had time away from Dr. Robotnik, totally oblivious that the mad scientist had just begun planning on his next move.

Deep in his base in the Western Rocks, Dr. Robotnik confidently began organizing his work, knowing that these ideas would definitely one-up that hedgehog and allow him to take over Mobius. Unfortunately, with everything he had in mind it would take a long time for the plans to be finished and executed.

But it would be worth it.


	2. Chapter 2

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 1: VISITING A FRIEND**

The sun slowly and smoothly rose over the horizon, bathing the land in a crisp, twilit light. The early spring sky was checkered with clouds, as if someone had shredded them and tossed them haphazardly across the dark blue heavens. Fog hung in patches across the fields, some almost smothering the farms across the land, the bodies of water, the forests and the small, dozy lakeside town in the center of it all.

For a long while, all was silent. All was still, until the soft thumping of running feet could just barely be heard, followed by the loud hum of a plane engine.

The forest was all a blur of greens, browns, and dappled light above as he ran. The fifteen-year-old dashed from side to side, this way and that, just barely dodging the thick tree trunks and leaping easily over logs and roots poking out of the ground. The wind rushed into his green eyes, racing through his long quills and cobalt fur. Sonic laughed loudly, gleefully. Ah, running, there was nothing like it!

Just above, a red biplane piloted by an eight-year old fox with blue eyes, amber fur, and two tails flew above, temporarily halting the specks of light that illuminated the leaves as it passed. The Tornado flew along, surprisingly able to keep pace with Sonic. Tails moved the control stick to avoid hitting the tallest of the trees and the Tornado responded immediately and obediently, as if it knew that its primary pilot had become even more of an expert over the past few years.

Sonic exploded out of the woods and into the wide plains. His feet moving in a red blur, he raced along a small field and onto an elevated path between two farms. The sun, so strong despite the cold weather, warmed his fur and made him smile contently. The Tornado soared high above him, casting a large shadow beside the hedgehog.

The path was long, but it led to a small series of pearl-white buildings standing proudly beside a lake. It looked just like it had when he had last seen it.

"Hey!" Cupping a hand around his mouth, Sonic called up to Tails. The keen-eared fox poked his head out to the side of the plane. Sonic pointed forward. "That's the place!"

Tails looked ahead, and Sonic saw his blue eyes go wide. The fox turned back to him and shouted. "Sonic, is that the town where we-?"

"Yep!" Sonic replied. "We're right back to where we started."

After a few moments Tails took a sharp turn-with Sonic breaking off of the path to follow-and set it into a glide over a nearby pond. In an explosion of mist, the plane landed easily in the water, eventually lightly bumping against the wall of the pond and stopping it completely.

Sonic kicked up dirt and grass when he skidded to a stop, careful to keep a safe distance from the pond. Looking over at the distant town, he chuckled. "Ah, the nostalgia."

Tails looked at the map clipped to the dashboard. "According to the map, we just have to head northwest to Knuckles' home." He said. Tracing his finger from the small dot labeled "Ashnite", and all the way to the northeastern peninsula, where the spot labeled "Amekari" was. It was the place closest to Angel Island.

"Cool!" Sonic replied cheerily. "We're close!"

Tails didn't respond, he instead pressed a button on the dashboard, causing the cargo hold's lid to pop open. The fox stood up and turned around on the seat. Keeping a hand on the Tornado's fuselage for balance, Tails opened the lid all the way and examined the contents inside. Then he let the lid of the hold close and turned around to face the town, looking thoughtful. "Hey, Sonic?"

"Yeah, bud?"

"Do you think we have time to stock up? We're kinda low on screws, and we could use some more blankets…" Tails replied, his voice trailing off uncertainly.

Sonic's brow creased in confusion. "Can't we hold out until we get there? It shouldn't be that far, right?"

Tails hesitated, his ears folded back timidly. Sonic immediately felt a hard knot in his stomach. _Oh, don't tell me!_ …"Right?"

Tails weighed the options in his head. What would be worse? Telling him now, or waiting for him to find out? He never figured out the answer, however.

Sonic took a deep breath. He saw how worried Tails looked, and instead took it for his cautious nature. He was just worried that they'd fall apart while flying due to some loose screws and bolts. At least, he _hoped_ that was the case. "Uh, sure. Go ahead." He chuckled. "Like you always say, you never know when we need to stop for repairs!"

Tails' head shot up. "Y-yeah. And we're gonna need some thick blankets. The city looks really far out."

"No prob, buddy. You head on in, and I'll watch the plane." Sonic playfully patted the Tornado, the sound was like hitting a soup pot.

"Um-well, I…okay." Tails didn't really feel comfortable going in on his own, but he was just going to get supplies and come back, it hopefully wouldn't take ten minutes.

Sonic gave the kit an encouraging smile and reached out to playfully tousle his head fur. "Don't worry, you'll be fine!"

Tails smiled a bit, feeling a little more comfortable. "Okay."

Sonic waved as his best bud hurried off towards the town. Seeing the tightness in the kit's muscles, he suppressed a sigh. Tails was his best friend, the closest friend that he had ever had. But it always bothered him how the younger boy got so uptight by merely being in the same _vicinity_ with people other than Sonic himself. Sonic was hoping that maybe Tails would start to get a little more comfortable with people by going into town alone, but judging by how hurried and uptight Tails looked, it appeared to be a futile chance.

_Ah, well. _Sonic gathered his wits and climbed onto the wings of the plane, trying to ignore the water below. _He'll grow out of it one of these days._ With a happy sigh, he lay on his back across the red wings, hands behind his head and stretching out. He gazed over at the town, letting his mind wander.

Four years ago Sonic and Tails had taken off from that town and started a long sight-seeing across Mobius. The two of them spent all of their time, up until this moment, traveling and seeing all that Mobius had to offer. They had traveled across the continents, over the oceans, going to all kinds of cities and towns and meeting new people. Sonic had run across fields and over mountains, across wild rivers and deep underground, always with Tails by his side. The two Mobian boys had grown over their travels, and now they were right back to the town where they had begun.

And now they were paying a nice little visit to Knuckles as a little sign of friendship...that is, they'd catch up while Sonic would annoy him every second. "Boy, he'll be surprised!" Sonic snickered to himself at the mental image of the echidna's face. Surprise, there'd definitely be surprise. And maybe even some horror…he was glad he came up with this idea!

Sonic's mind drifted to Amy, whom he hadn't seen in a few years, either. Despite the fact that crazy girl often used to exasperate him to no end, Sonic felt a pang of guilt. He could find her if he really wanted to. Should he visit her, too?

Probably not, now that he thought about it. Amy was older now. She probably grew out of that crazy fan girl phase. She probably forgot all about him! But still, Sonic couldn't help feeling a little funny about that. …A _little_ funny.

_Looks like more than one person's forgotten, now…_A little voice in his head hissed. Sonic groaned. Not this again. A single little thought had been nagging at his brain for quite a while.

Robotnik. Just as he hadn't really seen Amy or Knuckles, Sonic hadn't seen even the tiniest glimpse of Dr. Robotnik-_not once_-ever since his adventure and the destruction of the Death Egg.

It wasn't as if Sonic actually wanted to see him, though. If that guy had just left for good or something, he'd be totally happy! But that wasn't the case.Sonic had been chasing him for almost a year before he had destroyed the Death Egg, and he had actually learned a good deal about the crazy scientist; one thing being that his most defining trait was his persistence. He never stopped trying to both destroy the land and Sonic, he always kept his robot army at hand. Wherever he went Robotnik always left a metallic mark on the world.

But now, ever since Sonic had destroyed his "greatest creation" as he called it, Robotnik just seemed to have…disappeared. It was just so weird. All four years, no robots terrorizing anybody, no giant explosions of smoke or steam, no steel empires being built, nothing! Sonic had traveled all over, he had wondered about this, wondering if the scientist really _had_ given up. Surely if there wasn't a sign of his work, he must have given up! It made sense, given his largest and deadliest project was so easily defeated, but still…

With a small sigh, the hedgehog decided to put this out of his mind and closed his eyes. He had thought about this stuff before, and he kept on going in circles in his head about it, there was no point.

He must have dozed off for a few minutes, because the next thing he knew he heard the rapid rattling of metal against wood as Tails hurriedly returned. The poor kit was almost teetering back and forth, struggling with the multitude of thick, colorful blankets he held in his arms, along with the wooden box of screws he had wrapped in his twin tails. "I'm back."

Despite how drowsy he was only a few seconds ago, Sonic hopped to his feet immediately. "Cool!" Opening the cargo hold, he leapt off the Tornado and rushed over. "Here, let me help."

Tails practically slumped as the blankets left his arms. "Thanks!"

Sonic grinned, tossing the blankets in the cargo hold. The neatly folded cloths all unfurled in midair, landing in the cargo hold in a wrinkled pile that was anything but organized. Some even landed outside of the hold, either on the ground or dangerously close to the pond. Tails just sighed, placing the box inside as Sonic hurried around, grabbing the runaway blankets and tossing them in before firmly shutting the hold. "There!" Sonic pretended to dust his hands off. "We ready?"

"I guess so." Tails replied. He climbed into the Tornado and started it. The air became alive with the hum of the engine.

Sonic stretched his arms and legs out, rocking back and forth on his heels. Tails gripped the plane's controls and pressed the fuel pedal. In an explosion of dust and mist, they took off for the Northeast.

The weather gradually grew colder as they traveled, and the sky became increasingly cloudy. Eventually tiny snowflakes began to flutter down and settle into both Sonic and Tails' fur. Soon the two witnessed the flat plains below turn into rolling green hills, and eventually the rounded tops of the hills became the sharp, rocky peaks of mountains. On the far left horizon, a silver line of ocean could be seen.

Sonic hastily paced across the Tornado's wings, walking so fast the cold barely bothered him. _Let's go visit our friend, I said._ _The place can't be the far, I said._ He thought to himself. He groaned inwardly. _Dear Mobius, when we get there, please let it be worth all of this __**WAITING**__._

"Are we there yet?" He asked Tails hopefully.

Tails examined the map, tracing his finger on the paper. "Uh-uh. It'll probably be a while."

"Probably?"

"Well…" Tails hesitated. "I'm not totally sure, everything looks the same, so really…"

"So, isn't this city on the coast?"

"Yep, but 'cause you don't like water so I decided wait awhile before we go over the ocean."

"Ah," Sonic grinned. "Cool, thanks!" The less water he saw, the better. But still, that didn't to anything to hinder his impatience.

Barely ten minutes went by. "Are we there yet?"

"Nope."

Another groan.

About five minutes passed. "Are we there yet?"

"Not yet."

A grumble.

Barely a minute went by this time…"Are we there yet?!"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No."

Sonic collapsed on the cold metal, flat on his back. "Oh sweet Mobius, I can't take this!"

Tails bit his lip to keep from laughing. While usually anybody would be beyond annoyed that a _teenager_ would be asking a five-year-old's favorite question, this was actually a normal thing. Sonic loved flying the Tornado with his friend during their travels, but the problem was it was only when they _didn't_ have a particular destination. Sonic always got excited when he had a specific place to go, and when the land wouldn't allow Sonic to run for either it was too unstable, or if it were water, the speedster instead asked if they were almost at their destination every five to fifteen minutes. Every time. Every. Single. Time.

Suddenly a particularly freezing wind collided with the plane, sending snowflakes in the boys' faces. Sonic shivered and rubbed his arms. "Geez, you're lucky." Sonic said, glancing enviously at Tails, who was comfortably snuggled in his long, fluffy…well, tails. The fox kit shrugged. Sonic sighed. _If I were running, I'd probably be warmer…_

Sonic gazed at the snowflakes falling around, keeping his eyes on a particular one as it fell past the plane and towards the green, white-speckled ground below. "Y'know, I just don't get why you said it wasn't a good idea to run through these mountains. The place really looks totally safe!" The hedgehog turned back to his friend. "You know I've run across mountains before, what's the big deal about this? I don't see a single thing down there!"

Tails frowned. "I dunno, Sonic…" Reaching for the map, he unclipped it from the dashboard and held it out. "The map warns us about this place."

Sonic took the fluttering paper. Right next to the name "Amekari", he saw, in very tiny printing. _"Warning! Mountain range infested with dangerous inhabitants! Do NOT travel by foot!"_

"Ah." Sonic understood immediately upon reading "dangerous inhabitants". "You'd think they'd put something like that in bold print, huh?" He handed Tails the map back, then rested his hands behind his head.

"Hey, bud?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we there yet?"

Sigh.

Suddenly the Tornado shuddered violently as if it were hit by a large rock, then it began to keel over, it's right wing tilting up dangerously high. The entire plane had been hit by a particularly powerful series of winds, and now it was helplessly being pushed to the far left.

Sonic yelled in alarm and latched onto the freezing metal, flipping onto his belly to get a better grip on the edge of the wings. The metal almost froze his furless stomach, but it was better than falling off. Tails screamed, hastily trying to both keep from falling out of the cockpit and trying to regain control. Quickly he began to panic, moving the control stick in all directions as the wind drove on relentlessly.

The Tornado managed to straighten a bit, it flew up high and dropped back down, trying to escape the powerful gusts, but it still kept getting pushed away. The land rushed below them, snowflakes and even tiny bits of ice practically slashed the faces of the two Mobians, and the wind screeched mercilessly.

"We're being pushed towards the ocean!" Tails cried out, watching as the deep blue water, that was only a sliver on the edge of sight a few minutes ago, seemed to grow larger and larger. It become a river, then a wide lake, and then the ocean in mere moments as they drew closer towards the shore.

Sonic opened one eye-really risking the ice and snow getting into it-to look at the growing amount water. "Aw, _come on_." His fingers practically broke through the seaplane's wing when he tightened his grip.

The gales pushed on, getting wilder and more violent before throwing the Tornado out over the ocean in a massive burst of freezing air. But it didn't stop, it stubbornly pushed them further and further away from the land-prompting another "_Aw, COME ON!_" from Sonic.

And just like that, the gales just left just as quickly as it came, the wind rapidly declined into nothing more than a gentle breeze. Snowflakes stopped speeding down, and the falling ice disappeared entirely.

The Tornado flew completely upright now. Sonic let go and peeked over the rim of the wing. Seeing all of that dark blue and _very_ deep looking saltwater caused him to make a sound in his throat that sounded like this: "_Eeeiiighh…_" And slowly creep away from the edge. "You okay there, bud?"

The poor kit looked anything _but_ okay, in all honesty. He was shivering in fear in his seat, his eyes owlish and even a little wet, and his breathing was uneven has he fought back tears of fright. "Hey," Sonic said in a much softer tone. Tails looked up at him. "It's okay, we're okay!" He reached over and tousled Tails' fur, grinning. "It was just a weird gust of wind, we've been through worse."

Tails took a few deep, shuddering breaths. "R-right…" The feeling of someone patting his head did reassure him a little. After a moment when the older Mobian let go, Tails started to look around, tilting the Tornado ever so slightly so it began to slowly circle in the air like a hawk looking for prey.

Their position seemed to be just the opposite as before. They had been pushed way out over the ocean. The land was hardly more than a thick line of green in the distance almost completely smothered by the falling snow. "Geez," Sonic mused, looking at the faded green. "That was quite the distance."

"Yeah…" Tails gazed around, occasionally checking the map, hoping to find a landmark that might help them.

It caught his eye almost immediately. "Hey Sonic," Tails pointed out of the plane, "Look!" Sonic followed his gaze curiously.

It was an island, and a big one at that, with a set of mountains forming a huge ring on the landmark.. From what they could see, among the snowflakes the entire, multileveled island was covered in many different shades of green as new leaves came in upon the diverse trees inhabiting the land. The plant life slowly crawled up the mountainsides, coming to a stop more than halfway up, revealing peaks as dark as storm clouds that were soon covered by the low, grey clouds.

Sonic whistled, impressed, but Tails' brow furrowed. "Wait," He looked about, then examined the map. "That's the only island around. There's only one on the map around here, and it's close to the city. We can't possibly be-"

Sonic let out an involuntary yelp when Tails abruptly turned the circling Tornado around in a sharp hundred-degree turn. The Tornado whipped away from the island and headed towards the land.

Sonic was barely able to prevent himself from falling, lunging forward and grabbing the wing's edge again. "Hey!"

"Sorry, Sonic!" Tails said. "But I think we're closer to the city than we thought."

Sonic immediately got excited. Oh, finally! Finally he'd be able to get off of this crazy plane and stretch his legs! "Well, what're we waiting for! C'mon!"

"Okay." Tails pressed harder on the fuel pedal, and the wind rose from a hiss in their ears to a whistling scream.

Their destination appeared quickly, almost materializing on the land, in the large valley that it was nestled in. While it was impossible to make much out at their distance, six white skyscrapers showed themselves, looking as if they were made out of the snow itself.

"Well, look at that." Sonic said, he let out a whoop. "Finally! We're here!"


	3. Chapter 3

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 2: A CITY OF COLORS AND AN ISLAND IN THE SKY**

The snow began to clear a bit as the Tornado drew closer, letting both Mobians not only see the city, but the entire valley as well.

Sonic had never been to Amekari before, but on his worldwide road trip with Tails he had heard descriptions of the city and he had seen sepia-toned photographs of it. While the descriptions sounded cool and the photos looked neat, they were nothing compared to the real thing.

Each of the six skyscrapers looked as if they were taken directly from the world's most artful castles and pagodas, rising high out of the ground and ending in intricate peaks. From over the ocean and among all of that snow, they looked pure white, but now Sonic could see that each skyscraper was decorated with swirls, stripes, and designs that he had no name for, each pattern a different hue that stood out vibrantly against the settling snowflakes. He had heard about these buildings once, they were the central hub of the city.

The rest of the city that surrounded these skyscrapers was designed in almost the same way, albeit the buildings were much smaller, only being about one to two stories high, and instead of being pure white with complex designs, they were painted coated in vibrant colors. In addition to the intricately colored and shaped homes and shops, Sonic could see the many pagodas standing high above the rest. Due to the landscape, many of these smaller buildings were on hills or small, modified cliffs, so they overlooked other structures. All around the city there were trees just starting to bud, placed strategically through the city to resemble veins and coming into a forest in front, stopping right at the shore. The forest looked thick despite the lack of leaves, but right smack in the middle of it was a huge clearing which Sonic could only guess was a park.

Sonic stared, impressed. He had heard that the city was famous for its artistry, and it clearly showed. He looked back at Tails and almost burst out laughing at the kit's expression. Tails was utterly gobsmacked, his mouth hung open idly and his eyes were even wider than usual as he stared down below, hardly even keeping a limp hold on the controls of the plane.

"Tails?" Sonic asked, trying-and failing-to keep a straight face. "Are you still with me, buddy?"

"Huh?" Tails blinked, coming back to his senses and reaffirming his grip on the control stick. "I-I'm okay. I just…wow!" Tails looked at the city appreciatively, completely unable to find the words. "I-I can't-! W-wow!"

Sonic snickered and turned around, only to realize that give a few moments they'd crash into one of the towers. "Tails!"

Tails yelped and hastily turned the plane. Sonic gripped the wings as the Tornado banked around the structure, gliding around the wide building and heading back towards the ocean to land.

As the Tornado banked, Sonic could see confused Mobians and Overlanders craning their necks up from the streets and poking their heads out of windows and doors, wondering what all of the noise was. Planes weren't a common sight in the skies of Mobius, let alone a vibrant red one with a dark blue hedgehog standing on its wings. When the Tornado straightened out, Sonic gladly took a grand bow, grinning at the sound of applause coming from below. _It's good to be a hero._

Standing back up, Sonic turned around to his friend. "Okay, let's head off to Knux's place."

"Uh…yeah." Tails began looking out of the plane worriedly. "About that…?"

"What's wrong?"

"Where does Knuckles live, exactly?"

"You don't remember?"

"No."

"Right, right." Unfortunately, Tails was just too young at the time that they met Knuckles and Amy to remember much. Not that long ago, the kit had told Sonic he could remember bits and pieces, like the Death Egg and Robotnik and their friends, but that was about it. "Well bud, Knuckles lives on a place called…um…Angel…Angel Island, I think."

"Where is that?"

"Um…somewhere around here." The hedgehog shrugged. "We can ask around." Tails nodded.

Suddenly, Sonic's stomach rumbled loudly, reminding him that neither he or Tails had eaten since dawn, before the sun had even rose.

Turning back to an amused-looking Tails, Sonic asked. "Wanna grab a bite to eat, first?"

Tails nodded. "Sure!" With a turn of the control stick, the Tornado swooped around, descending onto the waves, bobbing and riding the water until it reached the shore. With expert timing, Tails turned off the engine so the plane would stop right at the shoreline. The head of each buoy dug into the submerged sand, keeping the aircraft from floating away.

Eagerly, Sonic leapt off of the plane and landed on the sand, with Tails following. The hedgehog happily stretched his legs and stomped his feet, kicking up sand. "Let's hope they have a good chili dog stand." He said, feeling his mouth water that the thought of his favorite food. Suddenly, he couldn't stand still a second longer.

"Hey, I'll race ya!" He said, eagerly pointing to the skyscrapers. Tails grinned, "Okay!" Immediately, his twin tails began wrapping around each other in a tight coil before releasing, causing them to spin around in a blur. Eagerly, Sonic took off into the forest with an airborne Tails following, both leaving behind a huge cloud of sand.

Despite the thickness of the forest, it was a quick run without any calamities. Both Mobians easily zigzagged through the trees, bouncing off of the trunks and narrowly missing the bare branches. Snowflakes landed on their faces, stinging as the cold seeped through their fur, but neither Mobians minded at all.

Soon the forest began to thin out a little bit, allowing them to see through the trees that flashed by beside and look at the wide field and rolling hills that was the clearing that they had seen from above. Sonic had guessed right, it was a park, and both Mobians and Overlanders could be seen playing in the thin sheet of snow that was settling on the ground.

As soon as the park was behind them, the trees quickly gave way to buildings. The skyscrapers were on a plateau that was high above the buildings in front of it. Sonic and Tails raced up the starts leading to the plateau and Sonic raced across the flat square, _just_ managing to skid to a stop. He barely kept himself from ramming into the tallest one of them.

"I win!" The hedgehog exclaimed. Tails settled onto the ground and sighed, rolling his eyes inwardly. _Surprise, surprise._ He actually was surprised when Sonic gave him a thumbs up. "Great job, buddy. You're getting faster!"

Tails smiled, returning the gesture. "Thanks!"

Sonic leaned against the building he almost smashed his nose into. He looked up at it and whistled. "Dang. How do you think they carved these things?"

"Oh, I don't think they carved them." Tails replied, observing the skyscraper.

Neither of them noticed that they were drawing a crowd.

"Ya don't?" Sonic asked.

"No, it's just too big for them to carve them all at once. They would have made blocks out of them and then piled them together, holding the blocks together with a cement they would've made out of the same rock…"

Sonic looked around, and realized they were becoming surrounded by Mobians and Overlanders. _Oh geez…_ Give a few moments and Tails would be caught in the crowd. "Uh, Tails…"

"As they went up they would have used scaffoldings, and for the more intricate parts they would have carved the blocks in the proper shape-it's like a giant puzzle-"

"Tails!" Sonic raised his voice urgently. The two were completely caught between the building and a giant semicircle of people, all talking excitedly as they closed in.

"What?" Tails asked, it was then that he realized that they were surrounded. "Ah!" Tails yelped and ran for Sonic, ducking behind him and pressing into the skyscraper's surface.

"It's him! I can't believe it!"

"The Hero of Mobius!"

"It's Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Hey, HEY!" Sonic shouted over everybody. It didn't take long before everybody was silenced, respecting their hero. That is, except for one guy who had pushed his way to the front of the crowd. He stared at Sonic in shock, before taking off, running around wildly, screaming and flailing his arms. Then he collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap, panting and foaming at the mouth.

Sonic stared for a moment. _O-__**kay**__…_ He shook his head. "Geez people, chill! You're freaking us out!"

The hushed people looked at each other, confused at the word "us", before noticing the little form behind the hedgehog. People began to point and wave excitedly. Tails winced.

"Does anybody know if there's a good chili dog stand around here?!" Sonic called, raising his hands. Tails sighed.

People began talking all at once and pointing to a edge of the square, against the railing there where vendors were selling a variety of food and drinks, including cabbages, muffins, hot chocolate, and hot dogs, among others.

"Cool!" With Tails pressed into his back, Sonic began making his way through the crowd. "S'cuse us. we need to get by, thanks." People began clearing out respectfully, although some people tentatively reached out to touch his arms and quills before quickly heading off. Sonic sighed, but he couldn't help grinning before turning to Tails. "You okay, buddy?"

Tails slowly disengaged himself from Sonic. "Y-yeah. I'm fine."

"Good, now let's get some food!" Sonic grabbed his friend excitedly and sped off to one of the stands that was selling a variety of hot dogs. "Two chili dogs!"

The vendor, a Mobian dachshund, jumped about three feet-almost slamming his head against the top of his cart. "Oh, the hero of Mobius! Certainly!"

Tails pulled a few rings from his shoe to pay for their breakfast. He looked over at the crowd, who were all looking at them from a distance before slowly dispersing. "Glad that's over…"

The second the chili dogs arrived, Sonic snatched his and ate it whole. How that was possible was something Tails would never understand. Tails wasn't too hungry, but he nibbled at his dog at Sonic's insistence.

Once the food was in their bellies, and the vendor was paid, Sonic stretched his arms over his head. "Okay! Now let's go find-" He was abruptly cut off when something slammed into him from behind. Something small but sharp dug into his spines. "Hey! Ow!" Sonic yelped. Instinctively, his ears picked up the sound of something toppling.

"Sorry, sorry!" A high-pitched voice cried out. Sonic turned around and saw a Mobian beetle on the ground. She was a little smaller than Tails, with a bright orange shell and transparent wings that stuck out askew. She was shaking her head and trying to remove her bandanna, which had slipped over her eyes. All around her were small wicker baskets of fruit, which had spilled out onto the ground. One of the baskets had a piece of its wicker sticking out, which was what poked Sonic in the back.

"You okay?" Sonic asked.

Finally the beetle managed to yank off her bandanna. "Sorry!" She cried again.

Sonic kneeled down to her. "It's cool. You okay?" The beetle sat up and looked up at him, and her mouth dropped open. "Y-you're Sonic the Hedgehog!"

_Here we go again…_Sonic thought, but he couldn't help the proud swelling in his chest. "Yep."

"I'm so, so sorry!" In a mad scramble, the beetle began picking up her groceries. She took the remaining fruits in the baskets and pushed them into his hand. "Here, take these as an apology!"

"Geez, calm down, kiddo." Sonic said. He patted her on the head before pushing the fruits back to her. "I said it's cool."

"You're sure you want me to keep them?" The beetle asked uncertainly. Sonic nodded. "Totally."

"Okay…well, thank you!" With Sonic and Tails' help, she began gathering up her fruits. "Again, I'm sorry for bumping into you, Sonic-san." She began to hurry away, but Tails stopped her with a "Wait!"

"Yes?" She asked.

"Do you know where Angel Island is?"

Sonic's eyes widened. _Great thinking, Tails!_ He had completely forgotten!

"Oh, sure!" The beetle turned on her heel and pointed to the mountains. "The Island's out there. I've never seen it, but I've heard that it's easy to find."

"Cool!" Sonic gave a little hop of excitement. "Let's go!" He was about to take off, but Tails and the beetle both stopped him. "Wait!"

"What?" Sonic stopped, his foot began to tap impatiently. He wanted to run, and those mountains seemed really inviting…wait a minute. He remembered.

The beetle said it for him. "It's too dangerous to go out there on foot!"

"Don't you remember Sonic?" Tails brought out the map. "It says 'Dangerous inhabitants'."

Sonic let out a groan. "So more flying?"

"Uh-huh."

That was when Sonic fell over, landing on the stone ground, hard. "Oh Mobius, I think I'm dying!" He groaned dramatically. "Tell my mom…I love her!" He pretended to gag, and promptly let himself go limp, with his eyes closed and his tongue hanging out.

Both kids laughed. Sonic opened one eye and grinned at them. But he groaned inwardly. More flying. _More flying_. _MORE FLYING._

"So you're flying?" The beetle asked Tails. "You have a plane?"

"Yeah, why?" Tails asked.

"Well, that's really good! I didn't know how you'd get to the Island."

"Why?" Sonic asked. "Because of the mountains?"

"No. Well yes, but it's also because Angel Island is a floating island. Didn't you know?"

"…What." Did Sonic just hear the word "floating" in that sentence? He looked over at Tails, who looked just as dumbstruck as he himself felt.

"Y-you mean that it literally floats in the air, right?" Sonic just wanted to be clear.

The beetle smiled and nodded.

"Well what're we waiting for!?" Sonic snatched Tails' hand. "Thanks kid!" He said to the beetle. "Now, I gotta check this out!" And just like that, they were heading for the beach, towards the Tornado.

The beetle watched them go. She didn't know if they could hear, but she called out cheerfully. "I'm Ashly, by the way! Nice to meet you, Sonic-san and Two-Tailed-Fox-san!"

Even though Sonic had only been in the city for a few minutes, word of him was guaranteed to last all day. Gossip traveled fast, and it wouldn't be long before everyone had heard it: The Hero of Mobius was visiting our humble city!

Amazingly though, word hadn't reached the ears of a certain pink, twelve-year-old hedgehog. At least, not yet.

"Mmph!" Amy grunted as she pushed her cart to its usual spot. Once she reached the bottom of the skyscrapers she put up a sign that said "Roses' Readings! 20 rings for a standard reading, 30 for advanced!", set up chairs for both herself and her first customer, and waited.

It had long stopped snowing, and while it was still cloudy, weak rays of sunshine gleamed wherever they could. Beyond the homes and shops there was a clear view of the ocean, and from it came a cold breeze. Amy, comfortably warm in her pink parka and black tights, smiled and closed her eyes against it. It wasn't long, however, that her muzzle began to sting from the cold. Maybe she should have brought a scarf…

Suddenly there was a laugh, a very familiar laugh.

Amy's eyes snapped open. _Sonic!?_ She stood up and looked around, among the Mobians and Overlanders, however, there wasn't any visible sign of a certain blue hedgehog. She pricked up her ears, hoping to hear the laugh again…nothing.

She sighed and sat back down, chin in her hands. Once again, her mind played a cruel trick on her. This had happened before, she'd hear Sonic's voice, or see him in a crowd, just for a split second, before it turned out to be a figment of her imagination. Her cousin had told her that this happened to a lot of people. He had said that if you really liked or really hated somebody, you'd often imagine them right in front of you.

Amy was a cheerful person who lived a cheerful life. She had spent her early years with her dear cousins, and now she was on her own! It was a wonderful feeling, to be so independent. She had friends here and back home, she had her own job as a fortune teller, she was happy.

At least, for most of the time.

For the past four years, every once in a while Amy felt a sense of longing. She hadn't seen Sonic in so long. He hadn't visited her once ever since she returned home from the adventure with the Death Egg. Amy just didn't understand it! Her tarot cards had told her that they were destined to be together! Didn't he like her? Weren't they, at the very least, friends?

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Huh?" Amy snapped out of her daydream and saw a Mobian snow leopard staring at her uncertainly. She had a customer!

"Oh!" Amy perked up immediately. "Welcome to Rose's Readings! What would you like to know today?"

"Um…is this a fortune telling booth?" Wow, how'd he guess?

Amy didn't mind, however. "Yep!"

The leopard looked thoughtful. "I thought fortune tellers worked in tents, or something."

Amy's face fell, but she tried to keep going. "Standard reading or advanced?"

"And don't they use those crystal ball things? Where's yours?" Oh boy, the guy clearly didn't read the sign. How hard was it to read words on a wooden plank?

"You want a fortune or not!?" Amy finally snapped. "Standard or advanced!?"

The leopard jumped. "Okay! Okay! Standard! Here!" He placed a small pouch on the table. Amy opened it, picked out twenty rings, and gave the pouch back. "Thank you!" She said cheerfully. "Have a seat, please."

The leopard did so and watched curiously as Amy picked up a large deck of cards and began to shuffle them. She focused deeply on the seventy-eight cards, transferring energy to them as she shuffled contently. It didn't take long for her to be lost in her own world…nor was it hard for her to come back to reality.

A loud humming quickly caught Amy's attention, making her prick up her ears and growl in irritation. "What now?" Opening her eyes, she leaned back in her seat and looked at the sky, where she knew the source of the noise was.

It didn't seem like anything was out of the ordinary, however. It was just cloudy, but it was starting to clear up-wait a minute! She saw it! A red plane, flying high above the city. Amy's jaw dropped. There was only one plane she knew that looked like that, and just who it belonged to.

Looking back at the leopard-who had his eyes also trained on the sky-she slowly sputtered out. "Is that-is that!?"

"Sonic the Hedgehog? Yeah." He replied, still gazing at the plane. "He's visiting with a two-tailed fox piloting that thing."

"Oh my gosh!" Amy let out a squeal of delight. Tails was here, _with Sonic!_ "I gotta go!" And just like that, she took off, sending her cart rocking back and forth and her tarot cards flying in all directions.

"Wait!" The leopard cried, "What about my fortune!?" But the hedgehog was already gone…with his money. Oh well, maybe he could tell his own fortune. He began picking up the tarot cards and examining them.

He was already lost.

Angel Island was a secluded place. It was deep in the mountains, hovering high over a lake that was far to big to be a lake. Anyone who dared come visit immediately caught the suspicion of the Guardian of the island and the treasure it held.

At least, when said Guardian was awake.

Knuckles dozed on the stone steps of the altar leading to the Master Emerald. Occasionally he would open an eye to check his surroundings, before going straight back to La-La Land. This was alright, though. It was still morning, and it was almost impossible for anyone to come to the island, for obvious reasons.

If there were an intruder-er, visitor-Knuckles would immediately be alert. As the official Guardian of the Master Emerald, he could sense its energy, and whenever there was an intru-_visitor_ the Master Emerald could feel it in the ground it, and its energy would increase as if in anticipation.

That was why nobody could set foot on the Island without Knuckles knowing it. Nobody said anything about the air, though.

Knuckles would have sensed a visitor long before he heard the loud humming coming from above. And at first he thought he was dreaming, but when he opened his eyes he saw a small, red plane flying towards him. Knuckles stood up and braced himself, ready for a fight as the plane drew lower and closer. However, soon he let his guard down as horror settled in the pit of his stomach as he remembered. Only one person he knew had a plane like that. It was _him._

Yep, there he was, relaxing on the wings of the plane like the slacker he was. How did he even find the Island!?

Knuckles froze when he saw Sonic's eyes open, and he could've sworn that snarky hedgehog was smirking as he stood up. Then, without warning, his jumped off of the plane just as it flew overhead. He was too fast for Knuckles to move out of the way, and immediately the echidna found himself falling to the ground on his stomach, hard, with Sonic resting on his back, hands behind his head.

"Hey there, Knuckles! Thanks for breaking my fall!"


	4. Chapter 4

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 3: ANNOYANCE **

As soon as Sonic got off of him, Knuckles leapt up and began sputtering like crazy. "How did you-? When did you-? Where did you-!?"

"Will you be finishing any of these questions?" Sonic asked teasingly.

Knuckles looked ready to start tearing at his dreadlocks. Through gritted teeth he finally asked Sonic. _"Why are you here?_"

Sonic's ears stood straight up in annoyance. "What? We can't pay a friend a visit?"

"You're 'visit' is just a plot meant to annoy me, knowing you!" Knuckles snapped back.

Wow, he was right on the rings. "Yeah, pretty much." Sonic admitted. "But Tails also wanted to see you again, so there's also that."

At that, Knuckles' anger began to subside. "Really? Tails is here?"

"Who do you think piloted the plane?" Sonic heard the engine of the plane stop from the lake down below. "And here he comes!"

Tails flew to the island and, upon spotting Sonic and Knuckles, eagerly flew down on the altar's steps. "Hi Knuckles."

"Hey, kid." Knuckles looked closely at the fox kit. He had certainly grown up over the years, in addition to getting taller, his brown fur had turned to a vibrant yellow, and his eyes a deeper blue. "You've certainly grown."

Tails smiled shyly, scuffing his shoe on the ground. "I guess…"

Sonic grinned and tousled Tails' head fur. "My little buddy is growing up!" He said cheerfully. Tails laughed abashedly, hoping this uncomfortable moment in the spotlight wouldn't last long.

And it didn't. Knuckles sat down on the steps. "Well, I suppose you two could stay for a little while." He muttered. Sonic grinned. "Cool!"

"Thank you, Knuckles." Tails added. Knuckles shrugged. "But only because this wasn't entirely a plan to get on my nerves."

Sonic sat down on the top step of the altar, stretching his arms over his head and rolling onto his back. "Is that all? You didn't miss us, too?" Tails sat down next to him, twirling one of his tails around his finger.

"I'm not one for company." Knuckles shrugged. "You know this."

"You're avoiding the question." Sonic tugged on one of the echidna's dreadlocks. "I said, 'Did you miss us?'"

"Um…" Knuckles finally swallowed his pride. "Well…I have kind of missed…sparring with you, I guess. And I wished I could've seen Tails grow up." He would never say this in front of Sonic, but he could tell that boys had matured…Tails had more than Sonic, but still.

"So, what have you guys been doing since we last met?" Knuckles asked.

"We've been doing some traveling." Tails shrugged. Sonic laughed. "_Some_ traveling? We must have gone around the world three times!"

"Oh, well…yeah." Tails muttered awkwardly. Sonic teasingly pushed his shoulder with the toe of his shoe.

"Traveling?" Knuckles asked, interested. Sonic grinned. "Yep! The two of us have been seein' the sights. We've gone to Chun-nan, Spagonia, Apotos…"

Tails suddenly noticed that there was a strange look on Knuckles' face. Then it clicked. Knuckles had only left this island once, and that was to rescue the Master emerald. Meanwhile he and Sonic have traveled all around and made so many friends…

"Uh, Sonic…?"

"Shamar, Empire City, Adabat, oh and those are only the cities and towns! You should see the-"

Tails quickly grabbed Sonic's shoe and shook it. "Sonic."

"Huh?" Sonic looked down at him. "What's up, bud?"

"Um, maybe this isn't a good thing to talk about. 'Cause of, y'know…" He nodded his head in Knuckles' direction.

"Ah, I gotcha." Sonic replied, winking.

"I can hear both of you." The echidna said flatly.

Sonic's cheerfulness immediately dropped. He clicked his tongue nervously. "Um…sorry?"

Knuckles stood up. Sonic, standing up as well, swallowed audibly. "You know I didn't mean to-where are you going?" Sonic and Tails watched as Knuckles walked up to the giant, gleaming emerald in the center of the altar. The Master Emerald.

Tails and Sonic exchanged confused glances as Knuckles patted the giant emerald fondly. He was smiling.

"I don't suppose you two have seen any hint of Robotnik, have you?"

Sonic sighed. "Nope." He tapped his foot, suddenly feeling irritable. "And I don't like it."

"I dunno, Sonic." Tails said, sounding a little more forceful than usual. "I really think he's gone." Unfortunately, his confidence crumbled when Sonic looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Just…you know…you always tell me how persistent he is…and to not see him in four years…"

_Wow._ Knuckles thought. Even though the kid had grown, this shyness was new. This certainly was a far cry from the bubbly little tyke he used to be. Just what had happened?

Sonic sighed and looked skywards. "Well…maybe we should head on."

Knuckles hummed in acknowledgement. "Where are you going?"

Beat. "Uh…"

"…Where _are_ we going?" Tails asked. "We didn't make any plans after this."

"Well, why don't we go find Amy?" Sonic suggested. The thought just came to him. It was only fair, they visited Knuckles, so why not Amy, too?

"Amy?" Tails' jaw dropped. "_Amy?"_

"C'mon, why not? I bet we can find her!" Sonic said, feeling a little more upbeat again.

"That's not why I…it's just, well, if she's as crazy as I remember…"

Sonic burst out laughing. "Oh, let's just do it! She's probably over that crush, but it'd still be a nice surprise for her. We just have to find out where she is."

"She's not very far." Knuckles said, smirking to himself as he examined the Master Emerald.

Both boys looked at him. "What?"

"When she became old enough to live on her own she decided to come to Amekari, since I lived nearby."

"I thought you guys hated each other." Sonic replied bluntly.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "We don't 'hate' each other." He made air quotes through his gloves. "We may fight, but she's fine, and that city's a good place to live."

"Well, okay then!" Sonic said. "Thanks, Knux! See you around!" He playfully clapped the echidna on the back. "The next visit won't take so long."

Knuckles tried not to groan.

"I'll bring up the plane. Then we can fly straight back to-" Tails began, but Sonic interrupted.

"No."

"Huh?"

"As soon as we're past the lake, I'll hop off and run to the city." Sonic pumped his fist in the air. "No more flying for me!"

"Are you sure you don't want to-?"

"Nope."

"You know it won't take long-"

"No."

"But what about the dangerous-"

"No more, please!" Sonic begged. "I can't take any more flying!" He clasped his hands together and gave the eight-year-old his most pathetic look.

"Well," Tails couldn't help laughing, at both the hedgehog's face and how silly he himself was being. Sonic was older and stronger than him, he could take care of himself just fine. He _was_ the Hero of Mobius, after all. "Okay, as soon as we're past the lake you can jump off."

"Be careful." Knuckles ordered.

"No prob, Knux." Sonic replied cheerfully.

"Sonic, I'm serious. You know exactly what's out there."

"Yes I do, and that's why I'm not worried!" Sonic explained. "They love me!"

Knuckles grit his teeth. "Fine." _Fine, you spiky, arrogant…thing!_ He watched as Tails descended down the island and back to the plane. The engine started. Sonic waved a cheery goodbye to Knuckles, before running down the stairs and to the edge of the island. As soon as the Tornado flew up and out from under the island, Sonic jumped onto its wing. They sped across the giant lake and over the forest, out of Knuckles' sight.

As soon as the Tornado cleared the lake, Sonic eagerly waved to Tails and leapt off of the wing. In order to protect himself as he neared the treetops, Sonic curled up into a ball and began spinning rapidly, shredding the treetops as he fell. He opened himself back up, leapt down the thickening branches, skidded down a thick tree trunk, and landed on something that felt…spongy.

Sonic looked down at the undergrowth curiously. He bounced a few times on the strange surface. Was this real? He never thought that undergrowth could be as thick and condensed as this. _Ah, well._ Sonic shrugged to himself. _It's probably nothing._ He stretched his legs-effectively digging his heels in the ground-and took off.

Tails watched him from up above. Although the forest was thick, he could see a streak of blue zip through the woods every few seconds. Tails smiled for a second, feeling happy for Sonic, but when his face fell when he looked at the map clipped to the dashboard. The words "dangerous inhabitants" played again and again in his mind.

Getting angry with himself, he shook his head. This was getting ridiculous! Why was he worrying so much? This was Sonic, and he could handle anything!

Tails shook his head and looked down again, watching as Sonic ran from the forest all the way up one of the mountains. Tails could practically hear him saying "Oh! What a great view!" the second he reached the top.

It really was a great view. On his right Tails could see the ocean, while on his left the hundreds of mountains. There was a mix of white and green from the snow and the budding trees, and-wait a minute.

Tails' eyes widened in horror. Among the white and green, where was an enormous moving form. Tails couldn't see what it was from the height he was at, but he could see that it was heading straight for Sonic, who was still admiring the nature around him.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted over the plane's propeller. No response. "SONIC!" Still nothing, and the form was moving faster and faster.

Tails searched the plane's cockpit in a panic. There had to be a way to get Sonic's attention…the flare gun! He forgot all about it! Sitting back, Tails grabbed a small lever on his left and gave it a pull, hoping this was the right one.

From below, Sonic's ears picked up a loud explosion followed by crackling. His eyes widened and he whipped around. "Tails!" What happened? Was he alright?

Sonic heaved a sigh of relief when Tails pulled the plane around in a loop-de-loop, a signal that he was fine. And Sonic saw a red flare going down. His eyes widened, there was only one explanation for an emergency flare.

And there it was, leaping across the treetops as if it weighed nothing. One of those "dangerous inhabitants", a Beast.

This Beast was called a Topiary Dog, even though it looked more like a wolf, and a giant one at that. It reached about thirty feet tall from toes to ears. Instead of fur their skin was made up of tightly compressed leaves that were as dark as emeralds. Even though the snow covering it, Sonic could see many swirls and spirals made up of lighter leaves. Its curved wooden claws tore at the ground as it climbed up the mountain. Its lips were peeled back, revealing teeth made of giant thorns. Its nose was made of gnarled wood, and the wooden circles that were in place of the eyes had a red spiral in each. Those spirals were glowing, glowing with anger.

Sonic felt a nervous grin playing on his face as he remembered the spongy ground he landed on earlier. _Well, so much for them loving me…_ Sonic immediately sprinted down the mountain, the Beast let out a loud, whistling howl and took off after him.

Normally Sonic wouldn't be running away, he'd get up and fight whatever was chasing him. But there was a very good reason he was fleeing instead of fighting, it was because of a rule even he abided by. This rule was to never anger a Beast, and if you do, get out of its territory as fast as possible. This was because even the smallest Beast had a special quality that made them lethal. As for this Beast, its thorn teeth were filled with poison, a poison that could kill anything in less than thirty seconds.

Sonic tore up and down the mountains, the Dog following him from the treetops at a surprisingly fast pace. Even so, Sonic left the creature in the dust as he raced to the edge of the valley where the city was nestled. From the top of the mountain, Sonic could see the Beast clamoring down another mountain, stumbling and trying to catch its breath, wooden tongue hanging out.

Knowing that safety was just a hop, skip, and a jump, Sonic couldn't resist. He playfully pulled at one of his eyelids and stuck his tongue out in the Beast's general direction.

Sonic spotted Tails catching up to him, and he waved cheerfully. Despite the distance he could see Tails returning the wave, before he turned the plane and began gliding down towards the ocean.

Seeing the Beast was now catching up to him, Sonic smirked, blew a raspberry at it, and dove down to the city.

As soon as his feet hit stone, Sonic skidded to a stop, catching the attention of everyone in the street. Everybody followed the hedgehog's gaze up to the edge of the valley and gasped when they saw the Beast, who was panting and was as angry as ever.

The air was tense. Everybody froze, waiting to see what would happen. Sonic didn't understand. He was out of the Beast's territory, why was everyone so scared? "What's the problem?"

No answer. Now Sonic was really confused. He looked up at the Beast. It was still there, but it wasn't moving forward at all, it just stared down at them.

Sonic had an intense urge to get the tension out of the air. He grinned as an idea popped in his head. "Hey guys!" He whipped around, away from the Beast, and began waving his arms to get everyone's attention. "Look at me!" And with that, he began dancing like an idiot. Spinning wildly, tap dancing, slapping his knees, whatever he could think of to get everybody to relax.

Everyone in the street-including the merchants-stared at him, wide eyed. They just couldn't believe that someone would try to make people laugh when there was an angry Beast right on the brink of their city.

But still, it was pretty funny to see the Hero of Mobius slapping himself and tapping his feet at a wild pace. Laughter began to bubble up in the street, with Sonic joining in.

At the rim of the valley, the Topiary Dog watched the crowd below. They were completely ignoring her now, all too wrapped up in watching the one who angered her. A low growl emerged from her throat as she felt rage rise up in her chest. She never felt so furious before, and she didn't understand why. It was just that when she looked at the blue Mobian, she felt her fury bubble higher and higher. And that was just enough to push her over the edge.

Down below, Sonic had finally finished his dance, and took a grand bow as everyone laughed and applauded him. But then there was a sudden scream in the crowd. In a millisecond there were more screams, and Sonic immediately had a nasty feeling in his gut.

He whipped around and felt his mouth drop idly. The Beast was rocketing down towards him, teeth bared, aiming to kill.


	5. Chapter 5

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 4: FEAR**

Just like that, the street exploded in chaos. Overlanders and Mobians began screaming and fleeing in terror. However, some just stood there, frozen in fear.

Sonic knew what he had to do. "Out of the way!" He yelled, running towards the frozen citizens, trying to get their attention. "Get out of here!"

The Dog raced into the street, snarling. Sonic leapt forward and tackled a merchant-who was trying to flee with his _entire cart_-just in time as the Beast slammed its paw into the cart, smashing it to bits.

The merchant didn't seem at all scared about that fact that he was almost cleaved in half by those claws. Instead, he stared at his cart in horror. "My _CABBAGES!_" He screamed right into Sonic's ear. Sonic winced and pulled him to his feet. "Forget them, get out of here!" He urged. "Now!"

Pretty soon the street was empty, save for Sonic and the Beast, who had smashed all of the carts in a blind rage by now. "Hey!" Sonic yelled at it.

The Dog looked at him, howled in anger, and charged towards him. Sonic sprinted towards the Beast and jumped right before he was crushed underneath its paws. Curling up, he homed in on the center of the its chest and slammed into it, spinning around rapidly, shredding the skin and revealing the Beast's muscles, which were made of tightly compressed vines.

The Beast let out a high-pitched bark of pain. "That was a warning!" Sonic called, leaping backwards. "Get out of here!"

The Dog shook its head-obviously trying to ignore the gaping hole in its chest, which was bleeding a sap-like substance-and lunged forward, opening its mouth wide.

Sonic retreated once more as the Dog took a snap at him. He barely avoided those teeth; in fact, he was so close that he felt the Beast's cold breath in his face.

Sonic curled up more and locked in on the Beast's wooden nose. The moment he came in contact with it he began to spin around once more, sending splintered bits of wood everywhere as he left a few good scars on its nose.

With another howl, the Beast whipped its head up, tossing Sonic off. Sonic yelled as he landed painfully on the stone ground, right on his back. The Beast didn't open its mouth this time, instead it held up a gigantic paw and brought it down. Sonic managed to roll out of the way in the knick of time. He rolled back the other way, however, when the Dog brought its other paw down, trapping Sonic between them.

Lips peeled back, the Beast brought its head down. Sonic pulled his legs up and kicked, making direct contact with the Beast's teeth.

Growling, the Beast pushed forward with its teeth, and Sonic pushed back with his feet. However, try as he might, Sonic just wasn't strong enough to hold the Beast back. Slowly the Dog began opening its teeth-scraping the soles of Sonic's shoes-to finish him off.

_BANG!_

Both fighters were startled by the sudden noise. The Beast lifted its head and snarled, both at the newcomer and out of frustration.

Sonic looked up and saw two upside-down forms, one was an Overlander, and the other was a large dog. The Overlander was holding a rifle, which he used to shoot another bullet into the sky with another _BANG!_

The Beast merely flinched at the second explosion, but it seemed to forget about Sonic as it began stalking towards the Overlander. Sonic rolled over and watched as the Overlander merely held his gun to his shoulder, tilting it so it was aiming directly at the hole in the Beast's chest, just in case. "Kuro." The Overlander said in a commanding voice. The dog looked at its master.

"Go."

Kuro gave a bark of acknowledgement, and walked towards the giant, scarred Beast without a hint of fear. In fact, the dog looked curious as he tilted his head back to look at the Beast. For a moment, both dogs just stared at one another, before the Beast slowly bent its head down to let Kuro lick its wounded nose. Drops of sap-colored blood dripped onto the stones below.

All traces of anger were gone. When Kuro finished licking the Beast stood back up, turned around, and began running up the valley wall, vanishing into the mountains.

Sonic watched all of this, mouth hanging open, until the tall Overlander walked over to him. "Come on, son. Get up." He offered his hand, which Sonic gratefully took.

"That was awesome." Sonic said, plain and simple. The square faced man allowed a lip twitch at that. "Thank you, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Who are you?"

"I am Aerius, and this is my dog, Kuro." He gestured towards the large dog, who trotted over eagerly at the sound of his name.

Whereas Aerius was a good six feet tall, Kuro almost reached Sonic in height. The dog sniffed Sonic's face curiously, and Sonic reached up to pet his head.

"So, thanks for helping me with that Beast." Sonic said. Understatement of the century. Aerius tried not to roll his eyes; the hedgehog's ego was just as big as he heard.

"Well, we came to do just that..." Aerius said. "I'm an agent of the Amekari Wing of the Guardian Units of Nations. I was ordered to come and provide backup."

"Cool." Sonic was really only half listening, he was laughing as Kuro tried to lick his face.

"And another thing," Aerius added. "On the way here, I was called by City Hall. You're ordered to go there immediately."

"Unbelievable. I mean _unbelievable!_" One of the council members-a male Overlander shouted. "What kind of fool are you!?"

Sonic cringed awkwardly. "A-heh…" He _really_ didn't know what to say.

Sonic was standing in the center of city hall, before a semicircle table that held the four members of the council. Two Overlanders-one male, one female-and two Mobians-one male, one female-with the female Mobian being a brown otter and the male being a purple walrus.

The male Overlander-a stout man with wide, owl-like eyes-was busy ranting at Sonic for the damage the city had bared. When Sonic pointed out it was only a few smashed carts, the man practically exploded.

"Not only do you bring a wild Beast into the city-"

"Wait, I didn't-" Sonic started.

"You have it run wild and destroy the biggest business district in our city!"

"Okay, hold on!" Sonic said, getting annoyed. "First off, I didn't mean to bring the Beast here, it was an accident! And second, I was trying to drive it off!"

"Well, you did a wonderful job with that." The Overlander retorted, his voice positively dripping with sarcasm.

Sonic bristled. "Hey! You listen here-"

"Enough!" The three remaining council members shouted, effectively shutting the arguing two up.

The otter spoke first. "Verne, you are merely making assumptions." She said in a soft, silky voice. "Mere assumptions that you conjured up when you had word of the event."

Verne didn't respond, he just glared at her.

The purple walrus spoke next, adjusting his bomber jacket. "From what I understand, Sonic was yelling at the citizens to run away, and he took the Beast head on."

"Yes!" Sonic whooped. "That's exactly what happened!"

Everyone stared at him.

"…Sorry."

Verne didn't look convinced. "Well, explain to me why the Beast would come into the city. They never did, until _he_ showed up!" He pointed an accusing finger at Sonic.

"Well, the Beasts _have_ been acting strange, as of late." The female Overlander said. "They're much more easily angered. And I don't like it."

"Oh, come on." The otter said. "It's probably just the weather change. You know how some Beasts need to adjust to the smallest of changes. The sudden chill we've gotten for the past week is probably aggravating them."

Verne sighed, "That could be true…very well, I will go along with this. Sonic!" He pounded the table, making Sonic jump. "We'll let you off the hook _this_ time. But I don't want anymore trouble, if I hear anything from you I'll have you on trial before you can say the word!"

Sonic felt relief wash over him. "Okay!" He said, feeling cheerful again. "No prob, boss!" He playfully saluted Verne, who simply glowered at him.

Suddenly Sonic heard the huge doors open up behind him. He turned around and saw Tails running right to him. "Sonic! Are you okay!?" He cried.

"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed. "There you are! Boy, did you miss out on the fun!"

Tails didn't respond, he just kept sprinting towards him. Sonic grinned, knelt down on one knee and opened his arms. Panting, Tails practically tackled him to the ground in a tight hug. "Whoa, easy!" He suddenly realized that the kit's eyes were red and puffy. "You okay?"

"I was really worried about you."

"Hey, it's me! I can handle anything!" Sonic boasted.

Tails wiped his eyes, which were brimming with tears "I'm sorry…"

Sonic tilted his head in confusion. "Sorry? For what?"

Tails looked down at the ground for a few seconds, his face contorted to prevent more tears. He didn't know how to say it…until it all finally burst out. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Sonic! When you were running from the Beast I should've come to pick you up! But in the end I just chickened out and went to land the stupid plane! If it weren't for me being a coward, the town wouldn't be destroyed, and you wouldn't have been almost killed! It's all my fault!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Sonic exclaimed. "Cool it. Breathe."

"It's all my fault!" Tails practically wailed. "And now you're the one in trouble! I'm sorry!"

"TAILS!" Sonic clapped his hand over Tails' mouth, catching his attention. "_Chill_. Breathe, c'mon, breathe."

Tails took a few deep, shuddering breaths as a fresh wave of tears went down his muzzle.

"Tails, you didn't chicken out."

"Yes I di-"

"Wait." Sonic held up his hand in a 'let me finish' gesture. "There's no way you could've picked me up without getting hurt. The Beast could've attacked the plane, or you could've crashed into one of the trees. I know I'm not the cautious type, but I know you did the right thing when you went to land the plane."

"Sonic-"

"And anyway, even if you did come to pick me up, the Beast probably would just chase us to wherever we landed. I wouldn't want you that close to it, I wouldn't want you hurt."

Tails hesitated, before trying to speak again.

"And besides, the town wasn't _completely _wrecked, only some carts!" Sonic added cheerfully. "Okay?"

"…Okay, but still, I'm-"

"If you say 'sorry' one more time I'm gonna tie your tails in a knot." Sonic warned. He tried to be stern, but it was obvious he was trying not to smile.

Suddenly Sonic heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. He turned around and saw all of the council members were standing. The woman, otter, and walrus were all giving him impressed looks. However, Verne glared at Sonic one more time. "Remember what I said, Sonic. Even your title won't save you next time."

"Gotcha." Sonic gave him a thumbs up. The purple walrus walked down to them. "C'mon, I'll lead you out."

Sonic blinked. "The door's right there."

The walrus shrugged. Tails and Sonic exchanged glances.

"I'm Rotor, Rotor Walrus." Rotor said, holding out his hand. Sonic shook it. "Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Rotor nodded and held his hand out to Tails, who shook it as well. "I'm Tails."

"Well then, let's go, Sonic and Tails."

Sonic stood up and walked alongside him, with Tails by his side. As they walked, Rotor spoke. "Don't worry about Verne, he's irritable, but he's nice when you get to know him…kinda." With great effort, he pushed open the doors.

As they left the Hall, Sonic couldn't help but notice that he was being glared at. Practically everyone in the square, Sonic noticed, was from the street where the attack happened. Sonic grinned sheepishly and waved, resulting in even more intense glares.

"Don't worry." Rotor said, placing a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "When things will calm down, you'll be forgiven…eventually."

"Ah, it's cool." Sonic shrugged, pretending not to care. "But thanks, though." Suddenly, he noticed a familiar face coming up to meet them.

"Knuckles!" Tails exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The echidna folded his arms. "I heard about what happened, and I just wanted to check on you two."

"Aw, how sweet." Sonic teased, laughing when Knuckles took a halfhearted swing at him. "I also brought someone here for you." Knuckles fought back a smirk and stepped to the side, revealing another familiar face at the bottom of the steps.

"Oh my gosh…" Amy breathed. Sonic waved at her. "Hey, Ames." He didn't like the look in her eyes. _Please tell me she outgrew that crush!_ He hoped one last time.

"SONIC!" Amy wailed and ran up the steps, ready to hug the life out of him and cover him with kisses.

Sonic screamed. "No! She didn't outgrow it! _She didn't outgrow it!"_

Sonic ran for it, dashing down the steps, past the pink hedgehog. Quickly Amy's joy turned into anger as she realized Sonic was avoiding her. "Get back here, Sonic!" Suddenly there was a puff of smoke, and just like that Amy was holding a giant _hammer_. "W-Where'd you-!?" Sonic sputtered, before running off, screaming. Amy grit her teeth and chased after him, ready give him a good whack.

Rotor, Knuckles and Tails all stared at this ludicrous sight. They all exchanged glances, and burst into laughter.

Once they calmed down, the trio noticed that Amy didn't come alone. Two Mobian rabbits had accompanied her, along with a Chao with a red bowtie. Together the two rabbits and Chao climbed the steps. "Hello there, I'm Vanilla." The tall rabbit said. The smaller rabbit waved eagerly.

"Um, hi." Tails said, offering his hand. The smaller rabbit stepped forward and took it. "Hi there, I'm Cream, and this is Cheese." She gestured to her floating Chao.

"We were wondering if you would like to come to our house for dinner." Vanilla offered. "Since both you and Amy are such close friends with Sonic."

Rotor cringed, "I would, ma'am. But I can't, I have to stay here and help make plans for repairing the carts."

"Oh, that's too bad…" Cream murmured. She looked at Tails and Knuckles. "Will you come, please?"

"I…sure." Tails said, a caught a little off guard. "Thank you."

Knuckles looked over his shoulder. Would the Master Emerald be okay? He turned back and saw Cream looking at him with big, quivering eyes. He bit his lip, how could he say no? "Alright."

"Yay!" Cream cheered. "C'mon, Mama, let's go!" She grabbed her mother's hand and lead her down the steps, following Amy and Sonic. Tails and Knuckles waved to Rotor, who vanished into City Hall. As they followed the rabbits, Tails realized something. _They don't even know our names!_


	6. Chapter 6

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 5: PREPARATIONS: COMPLETE**

As one would move to the west of Amekari, eventually the lush mountains would thin out. The plant life would be much less plentiful. All to be replaced with tall rocks that resembled pegs on a pegboard, and cold sand at the dark bases of the rock formations. The Western Rocks. And hidden deep in the Western Rocks was an underground base that belonged to none other than Dr. Robotnik.

Robotnik stared in the mirror, remembering how he looked four years ago. He had certainly changed over the years, and he was proud of it. He was at least two feet taller, with a bushier mustache and dark-colored glasses that replaced his light blue ones. Resting on his head was a pair of goggles, which seemed to do wonders to disguise his baldness.

Gone was the red shirt, instead replaced with a grand jacket of the same color. It was the same case with his pants and boots-except the new ones were grander!

Even though he never really got rid of his…roundness, Dr. Robotnik felt much more sophisticated. He was ready.

"Orbot! Cubot!" Both robots appeared upon command.

"Yes, Boss?" Orbot asked.

"Is the ship prepared?"

"Yes, Boss. Except for one thing…"

"What is it?"

"Er…" Orbot wasn't sure how to answer, that is, until his cubic companion chimed in. "We've got no idea how many robots you want coming with us, Boss!"

"None, except you two." Robotnik replied. He started to stride out of his room, his robot servants floating behind him.

"None, Boss?" Orbot asked, surprised.

"Except us two?" Cubot added.

"Exactly!" As they walked down the halls, they passed large rooms holding hundreds of Badniks, along with many new types of robots that were yet to be finished. It had taken a long time to collect the fuel source for each and every one of these robots, especially since they had to be careful to be inconspicuous, catching the sources in the most secluded places in the world. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice the slowly decreasing population of Animal Friends, not even Sonic.

Along with these robots were many airships. Many were finished and ready for use, some were only partly finished, and some were still in the blueprint stage. That was alright, though. Robotnik could finish the rest later. He didn't want to wait any longer.

"Are you two ready for this?" Robotnik asked.

"'Ready'?!" Cubot exclaimed. "I'm more than ready, Boss!" He startled the scientist by floating in front of him, waving his arms excitedly. "I've been waiting for this for a long time! I can't wait to see the look on Sonic's-"_Kzzrt!_ Cubot's ramble was interrupted by a malfunction, once again. Ugh, no matter how hard he tried, Robotnik just couldn't seem to fix him!

So he resorted to the next best thing, and the only thing that really worked. He balled his hand into a fist and slammed it into Cubot's face.

Cubot was knocked back, but he quickly floated upright. "Thanks, Boss!"

Sigh.

Robotnik cleared his throat. "Come on, you two." Both robots obediently followed their creator down the hallway.

"There it is, boys." Robotnik stared at his airship proudly as he entered the landing dock.

The airship in question was a giant sphere, balanced by the giant wings on each side. Like all of its creators works, it was painted entirely in a vibrant red.

Robotnik led his two robots toward the elevator. "This is what we'll be traveling in."

"Wow, Orbot, it looks just like you!" Cubot exclaimed in wonder.

Orbot didn't seem to hear him.

"And wait until you see what's inside!" Robotnik exclaimed. "This is the genesis of my Empire!"

"That Sonic will destroy in the next fifteen minutes." Orbot muttered sarcastically.

Robotnik glared at him. "Perhaps, but that is the point."

Orbot and Cubot stared at him like he was crazy.

Robotnik rolled his eyes. "Doesn't it occur to you that Sonic would've grown in the past four years? Unlike you two, he is not a robot. Doesn't it occur to you that Sonic would've gotten faster and stronger in those four years? As much as I hate to say this, but this will just be a mere test."

"But why would you go to the trouble to create so much cool stuff _before_ the test?"

"Well, I must be a step ahead of my enemy, and anyway, what I've built is just the army." He grinned toothily. "When I learn _just_ how Sonic's grown, then I can start working on the fun stuff."

Sitting in his Eggmobile, Robotnik stared at the radar built into the dashboard. According to the radar, his target would be a place called "Amekari".

Another toothy grin. _That's not far, not far at all._

He pressed another button on the dashboard. "Set course for the east! Target: Amekari!"

The earth trembled as the ceiling of the base receded. Sand poured in from all sides, along with a few good sized rocks that crashed onto the base's floor. Robotnik didn't care, however. All of his focus was on getting to his destination.

The ship rose up, high above the base and above the tall rocks. Robotnik pressed one final button, and the rockets at the back of the ship kicked in.

The airship sped off, blue flames emitting from its rockets, and its wings flapping to keep the ship balanced. Inside, Robotnik and his two companions held onto the Eggmobile for dear life as they sped towards the east.


	7. Chapter 7

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 6: BEASTS AND MACHINES**

"NOOOOOO!"

"YOU GET BACK HERE, SONIC!"

Everyone was outside of the two rabbits' home, right in their front yard. The whole way to the house Sonic tried to avoid Amy by literally running away from her. Unfortunately for Sonic, this was _Amy_, with a _hammer_.

So there they were, everybody just standing and staring in amazement as the Hero of Mobius was chased around by a little pink hedgehog-with a _giant hammer_-who was three years younger than him.

"Guys, HELP!" Sonic screamed to Tails and Knuckles.

Knuckles, who was perched on a rock, finally yawned. "Alright, fine." This was a comical sight at first, but after about an hour it was getting pretty dull. He slid off the rock and headed towards Amy, who positively steaming now. "You rude hedge-HEY!" She slammed into Knuckles chest, and his arms wrapped around her in a headlock. Sonic raced away towards the house, leaping behind a bush, just in case.

"Knock it off! Let me go!" Amy snarled and struggled, but Knuckles was still stronger than her, even in her enraged state.

"Only if you drop it!" Knuckles grunted back. Amy growled like a wild animal. Knuckles' eyes narrowed. "_Drop. It._"

Amy threw her Piko-Piko Hammer on the ground. Her anger began to fade, and her exhaustion caught up with her. Knuckles let her go and she slumped, panting.

Sonic winced when Amy leaned down to pick up her hammer, until he saw her turn it upside-down and lean on the bottom of the handle. Tentatively, he stood up. "Where'd you get that thing!?" He exclaimed in exasperation.

Amy straightened up. "My cousin gave it to me." She said coolly. Sonic hummed in acknowledgement, only to cringe when the girl gave him a dangerous look.

"Uh-_erm_." Vanilla cleared her throat. "Amy, perhaps you would like some tea to calm you down?"

"_I'm __**perfectly**__ calm._" Amy hissed through gritted teeth. She was surprised when Vanilla put a hand on her shoulder with the tenderness of a mother. "Come on, now. You know it'll help."

Amy took a deep breath and stopped grinding her teeth to shards. "Alright." She went into the house, followed by Vanilla. At the last minute, Vanilla seemed to remember everyone else. "Oh! Everybody, do you mind staying outside for a little while?"

"No prob!" Sonic said with a shrug.

Tails nodded in agreement. "Not at all, ma'am."

Knuckles hummed in agreement and went back to his rock.

Vanilla smiled. "You take care of everybody, Cream. Alright?"

Cream smiled and waved to her mother. "Don't worry, Mama. I will!"

Vanilla smiled. "I know you will, dear." She closed the door behind her. The lights in the kitchen came on as she began boiling water for tea.

After a while Knuckles gave Sonic a cool look. "A lot of damage in the city, today."

"Well, just some carts…" Sonic chuckled awkwardly.

"All because you had to run all over the place and anger that Beast."

Sonic sighed. "Hey, c'mon. Beasts tend to like me, it was just bad luck that I landed on one and made it angry. And anyway, the guys at City Hall said the Beast might be annoyed because of the weather change."

Another eye roll from Knuckles. "Just a tip," He said. "Let the Beasts in the area you travel to next get to know you before you run at…um… however fast you can run. Some of them need to adapt to changes, no matter how small."

He stood up. "And another thing, if I were you, I'd gather some rings together for the town so they don't _completely_ hate you for the damage." He began to walk off, heading towards the mountains.

Sonic watched him go. "Watch the Beasts!" He called mockingly.

Knuckles smirked to himself and raised a hand in acknowledgement. "They know me, don't worry!" He vanished into the darkness of the forest at the foot of the hill.

Tails watched him go. "Y'know Sonic, what he said wasn't a bad idea. Maybe we should get some rings together and donate it to the town."

"Yeah, I guess." Sonic shrugged. "Just don't let Knux know I think it's a good idea." This was the least he could do, and it wasn't hard to gather rings. Besides, whether or not he was just passing by this place, he didn't want the people hating him.

"_Chao?_" Sonic's ears pricked up. He turned around-and burst out laughing when Cheese the Chao latched onto his stomach in a hug. _"Chao, Chao, Chao!"_

"Oh, Cheese!" Cream exclaimed, running over. "Don't be rude!"

Sonic petted Cheese on the head before gently prying him off his belly and pushing him towards Cream. Cream embraced the Chao, but looked at him sternly. "You know better than that."

"Ah, it's cool." Sonic said with a dismissive wave. "I get attention like that all the time."

Tails gave him a look. "Not really."

Sonic gave him a wry look. "Were you not here this morning?"

"Oh, yeah."

Sonic looked around. "Nice place you got here." It really was. The house was settled at the top of a series of rolling hills, Amekari could be clearly seen in the distance, and there was a nice gazebo that was quite close.

Cream smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Sonic."

Sonic was surprised at the title. "Uh…sure."

Suddenly, Sonic had the urge to have some fun. "You guys wanna see me run to the city and back?" Sonic asked.

Tails grinned. "Sure, Sonic." Cream nodded, "I'd love to, Mr. Sonic."

"Okay!" Sonic tapped his toes against the ground and got into his running position.

Beat.

"Wanna see me do it again?"

"Hey!" Tails exclaimed. "You didn't do a thing!"

Sonic tried hard not to laugh. "Yes I did! I'm just too fast for the naked eye!"

"Really, Mr. Sonic?" Cream asked, very impressed.

Sonic puffed out his chest. "You bet! That's why I'm the fastest thing alive!"

"Liar." Tails muttered.

Sonic looked at him, smirking. "Pardon?"

"You're a big fibber, Sonic! I've seen you run! You can't run so fast that you turn invisible!"

"Well, aren't we confident!" Sonic said teasingly. "But you should know that doubting me is a _big _mistake, my friend_._"

Without warning, Sonic raced over to Tails before he could get away. He pulled him into a headlock and rubbed his knuckles against his head.

"Augh, Sonic!" Tails exclaimed through his laughter. "Lemme go!"

"Not until you admit that I _did_ run to the city and back!"

"Never!" Tails tried to wrestle his way out of Sonic's grip, but the teenager was just too strong. "Cream, help!" As a united force, Tails, Cream and Cheese probably could take Sonic down.

"Um…" Cream hesitated, unsure. Would Mama be mad if she got dirty? Play fighting was more of a boy thing, it just wasn't proper. But still, it _did_ look like fun, plus Tails needed them. "We'll save you, Tails!" She and Cheese charged forward, bowling into Sonic and knocking him off balance. This gave Tails the chance he needed, and he wiggled he way free of Sonic's loosened grip. "Haha! Freedom!" Tails flew into the air, climbing high before dropping back down, circling and performing loop-de-loops. "Thanks, Cream!"

"Of course, Mr. Tails." Cream gave a little curtsey.

"You showoff." Sonic looked up at Tails, who had just finished his little aerobatic routine.

"You're always a showoff!" Tails answered.

"No I'm not!" Sonic replied, pretending to be indignant. "I'm quite offended you would think that!"

"You're lying again!" Tails pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right." Sonic admitted. "Well, since I'm a showoff, try and catch me!"

"Huh!?" Tails gaped when Sonic took off, running around the hills, not even going full speed. Tails chased after him, "Cream, c'mon!"

"Coming, Mr. Tails!"

"Haha!" Sonic grinned. He opened his mouth in an O shape and repeatedly hit his hand against his lips. Pretty soon Tails and Cream were laughing, and it wasn't hard for Sonic to join in.

"Excuse me?"

Sonic skidded to a stop, with Tails, Cream and Cheese all bumping into him. "Mama!" Cream exclaimed.

Vanilla and Amy were standing in the doorway. Amy looked at them, annoyed. "We can't go in for five minutes without you carrying on like animals, can we?"

Cream shrunk down shamefully. Sonic and Tails both laughed in embarassment.

The evening wore on. While the sky was dark and cloudy, there was a line of bright light on the horizon.

Vanilla had brought everybody inside for dinner. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese all sat around a circular table in the kitchen while Vanilla cooked a pot of chicken soup.

Amy nervously twiddled her thumbs, occasionally stealing a glance at Sonic. Sonic tapped his foot against the floor. Neither of them knew what to say to each other.

So the five of them really just sat in an awkward silence until Vanilla began bringing out their dinner. Everyone thanked her and nearly scalded their tongues on the steaming soup.

Vanilla sat down next to her daughter. She seemed to sense the unease. "So, Sonic and Tails." She began. "I have heard that you boys have been traveling the world for the past couple years."

Tails painfully swallowed a mouthful of the hot broth. "Yes ma'am."

"You've traveled all over the world?" Cream asked, amazed.

Sonic nodded. "Yep. All over the world for four years."

"I bet you made a lot of friends." Amy murmured to her bowl.

"Yeah, we have."

"Mm…"

Sonic sighed. This was the thing about Amy, one second she would be a raving lunatic, and then the next she'd be so shy she was the equivalent of a shrinking violet. It got rather exhausting.

"And we came here so we could visit you and Knuckles." Tails said to Amy.

She looked up. "Really? I thought you were just passing through."

"Nope." Tails blew on his soup to cool it. "We wanted to see how you were doing, right Sonic?"

"Yeah, plus we've never been here before." Sonic added. "It's a really cool city."

"Yes," Vanilla murmured, suddenly her eyes widened. "Oh, that reminds me! Everybody, come to the window!"

Vanilla went over to a window facing the city and pushed it wide open. Everybody joined her at the window. "Any second now…" She said excitedly, leaning over the windowsill.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"Just look closely." Amy replied. "And…there!"

As the last light of the day faded, the whole world seemed swallowed in darkness for a split second, and then Amekari came to life.

From the thousands of streetlamps, bright purple lights glowed, throwing purple onto the white streets. From lamps that were connected to the buildings were lamps holding golden lights. The two colors not only complimented each other, but they seemed to bring the illusion that the colorful designs on the skyscrapers were popping right out.

It was impressive even from a distance. Vanilla smiled. "This is why the city is called 'Amekari'. It's short for 'Amethyst Hikari'. Amethyst is a shade of purple, and Hikari means 'light'."

"Wait till you see it on a clear night." Cream said. "With all of the stars, its just _so pretty!_" She gave a little hop of delight.

Suddenly the windows began to rattle, followed by a blast of freezing wind that ruffled everybody's fur, and the windows were slammed shut. Even with the windows closed, the cold seeped through the glass, further chilling everybody until Vanilla closed the curtains.

"Well, that was sudden." Tails commented, smoothing down his fur, ears twitching at the rattling windows.

"Tell me about it." Sonic agreed. Something clicked in his head. "That was just like this morning, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yeah." Tails remembered.

"What?" Amy asked.

Sonic explained how a gust of wind had pushed them over the ocean earlier that day. Tails added in just how powerful the wind and cold the wind was, and that if it weren't pushed by it they would've flown right by the city without even knowing it.

As they talked, Vanilla looked thoughtful. "Excuse me for a moment, please." Everybody went back to their seats to finish their dinner as Vanilla left the room for a second and returned with a thick, leatherback book. "I've heard of this before, around this time of year." She said. "Sudden winds that can greatly vary in intensity." She began flipping through the book. As she did, Cream and Cheese managed to wiggle into her lap. The older rabbit kissed her daughter's head. "Ah, here we go." She pushed the book towards Sonic and Tails.

It turned out that the book was a bestiary. And on the page Vanilla had turned to there was an illustration of a large, hawk-like Beast that was made entirely of a crystal blue ice. Underneath the bird there were ink streaks that were supposed to symbolize wind. On the other page there was a description. Tails read it aloud.

"_Iceplumes. Size: three feet long from beak to tail, ten foot long wingspan. Virtually weightless. With a hollow body made entirely of ice, these Beasts can angle but not flap their wings. Instead, they conjure winds that they glide upon. These reclusive Beasts are known for their high intelligence and acute senses._"

"Huh." Sonic observed. That sounded quite accurate.

"Yeah," Tails looked at him. "We were probably close to one of these things on our way here. In fact, I bet that we would've crashed into it if it weren't for that wind it made. That explains why the wind was so sudden, and so icy."

Sonic pursed his lips. "And if it weren't for that, we would've missed the city altogether, quite the coincidink."

Tails shrugged. "I guess."

Sonic flicked his ears. He wasn't sure what to think of all of this stuff. Today was just so crazy, a Beast leaving their territory and coming into a city was almost unheard of. And now there might be another Beast involved in the mix. He didn't care what other people thought of this, something fishy was going on.

There was a yawn from Cream. Sonic looked and saw the girl was barely keeping her eyes open, and her Chao was trying to snuggle into her arms. Vanilla smiled tenderly at the duo. "I'd better put them to bed." She stood up and looked at Amy, who had been unusually quiet. "Amy, dear, would you like to sleepover?"

"Oh, sure." Amy said, sounding distracted. "Thank you."

Vanilla nodded. "Boys, you may spend the night here, too, if you want."

Sonic smiled at her. "Cool, thanks ma'am."

The couches Vanilla owned were _unbelievably_ comfy. As soon as they landed on the cushions, Sonic and Tails were out like lights. However, it felt like Sonic had only been asleep for five minutes when he opened his eyes. What time was it? Sonic could hear the sink running, and when he sat up he saw Amy walking out of the kitchen, sipping from a glass of water.

"Oh, hey Amy." Sonic yawned and rubbed his eyes. "You're up early."

Amy shrugged. "I always wake up at this time."

"Say, were you okay last night?" Sonic kept his voice low to keep from waking Tails up. "You seemed kinda…off."

"Well…I dunno." Amy sighed. "I just have this funny feeling, like something's going to happen soon."

"Ah, your fortune telling skills." Sonic said in a playful tone. Amy rolled her eyes, until she realized he might've had a valid point. "Well, you seemed kind of funny last night, too." She retorted.

"Did I?" Sonic was surprised. Then he remembered his thoughts last night. "Oh, yeah. I guess I was just thinking about the Beasts and how they've been acting. Knuckles said that they need to adapt to the smallest of changes." Something clicked in his mind. "And, y'know, I haven't seen Robotnik in four years, which makes _no_ sense. And now you feel weird, too."

"Robotnik?"

"Yeah." Sonic grumbled. He began feeling that horrible nagging sense he got whenever he thought about Robotnik. "I really don't like it, Amy. There's no way Robotnik could just _give up_." His eyes widened. "Do you think-"

There was a rumble. It was barely felt by the two hedgehogs at first, but it began to build. The water in Amy's cup began trembling. A high-pitched ringing soon reached their ears.

Tails groaned as the sound woke him. "What's happening?"

Outside, the ringing seemed ten times louder. And the rumbling continued to build up. Amy found herself flinching. "What's going on? Hey!" She and Tails watched as Sonic sprinted up the side of gazebo and stand at the top. He faced the edge of the valley, where the sun was just starting to rise.

It seemed to come out of nowhere. It was an airship so big and so low to the ground that it caused the earth to tremble, and it emitted a high pitched ringing that hurt his ears.

Suddenly everything made sense. The Beasts were acting strange because they sensed the ship flying towards them. That explained the Topiary Dog's anger, it could probably hear the ringing from miles away, and it was driving it crazy. As for the Iceplume, maybe it sensed where Sonic and Tails were going, and pushed them in the right direction because it didn't want them in the wild with all of the Beasts so aggravated.

_**Wow**__, Sonic. Talk about farfetched._ He told himself. But who knows? After all, the bestiary did say that Iceplumes were highly intelligent. And Knuckles and the Council both said how sensitive Beasts were to changes.

It didn't matter, though. That ship was heading right for the city, and Sonic knew it was up to him to stop it. "Finally, something interesting!" He heard Amy and Tails' yelling as he took off.

Sonic sprinted through the forest and straight up the valley's wall. He climbed one of the mountains closest to the ship. The ringing almost deafened him, but he tried to ignore it. Sonic grabbed the sharp tip of he mountain and balanced there on a one-hand handstand, watching the ship descend into the valley. It didn't take much to guess who was piloting it.

He wasn't spotted yet. But he spotted an opening, an air vent in the center of the roof that he could easily smash through.

It was time that he did the best trick he had in his book: the Super Peel Out. He sprinted down the mountain, his feet moving so fast that they formed the illusion of a red figure-eight. The wind tore at his face, making tears fill his eyes. He found himself grinning like a maniac.

As soon as he reached the base of the mountain, he jumped as high as he could and curled up, spinning rapidly as he fell. He targeted the air vent and went for it.

And with that, Sonic smashed through the vent opening, and the thin metal wall below it. He landed right in the middle a small room with a single opening.

There wouldn't be much time before the ship reached the city, and knowing the pilot of this ship, everybody would be captured as soon as possible. He didn't have much time. Sonic did the best thing he could do: run.


	8. Chapter 8

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 7: LET THE TEST BEGIN**

There was nothing but a metal wall behind Sonic, and in front of him was the head of the hallway that curved downwards. Sonic took it, practically running along the wall. The hallway went in a single direction, curving down like a spiral staircase. That is, until he came to the very bottom an enormous room with a single large opening at his right; the entrance to the core of the ship.

Sonic skidded to a halt, smirking. "Oh gee, a single hallway leading to a giant room? I sure hope this isn't a trap!" His voice echoed down the hall, fading into an ominous silence.

Sonic jogged down the hallway, feeling the excitement grow inside of him. He felt so alert, so alive! He felt just like he had when he had destroyed the Death Egg, and that was in his super form! If he felt like this now…it was going to be a good fight.

Finally, the hallway opened up to the heart of the airship. The room was enormous, so big that Sonic couldn't even see the back wall. Ordinarily a room this size would be too much for a ship like this to handle, but thanks to Robotnik's genius and those giant wings, this ship was just fine with it. It helped that the room was entirely empty save for the lightweight, red metal shell that covered the whole room, just like in the hallways. At least, Sonic thought it was red, it was hard to tell because the room was so dark. The only light was coming from a small skylight in the center of the ceiling that was almost completely obscured by something that Sonic couldn't make out. Leading up to the skylight were four pillars, each having a straight track running down the inward side.

Sonic's eyes were trained on the thing blocking the skylight. The longer he looked, the more he could make it out. It was the mecha he was about to fight.

"Well, Sonic. It seems you've grown quite a bit."

There was a loud rumble that shook Sonic to the bone, and the mecha began descending down the tracks-which Sonic realized were gear tracks-allowing him to get a full view of it.

The bottom of the machine reminded Sonic of a chess piece base, except with two rockets vertically attached to it. As he looked up, the machine swelled out to a large sphere, like a globe. Surrounding the sphere was a large metal rod shaped to make a circle, like a hula hoop, only with four huge, bronze gears evenly placed on it. Despite the bad lighting, Sonic could tell that the metal shell was as black as coal, thanks to the skylight. And right at the very top of the machine was the Eggmobile. The glass top split in two and retracted into the metal bottom, and Sonic's arch nemesis stood up, allowing Sonic to see him completely.

"…Pfft!" Sonic doubled over, shaking with laughter.

"Wh-what's so funny!?" The Doctor demanded from his hovercraft.

Sonic could barely form the words. "Yeah, you've grown quite a bit, too, Doc! BAHAHAHA!" He collapsed on his hands and knees, pounding the floor in helpless hysterics.

For a moment, Robotnik just froze, stunned. This was _not_ how he expected Sonic to react to his new look.

"You look like a giant talking egg!" Sonic howled with laughter.

Jawdrop. "How _dare _you!? I blossomed into someone even greater than before! Look at me, I'm taller! STOP LAUGHING!" The Doctor got angrier with every word he said, eventually just descending into angry nonsense.

"Ah, heh. Heheheheh!" Sonic struggled to stand up. He wiped his eyes. "G-give me a minute. Give me a minute." Honestly, both of them needed a minute. Sonic needed to recover from laughing, and Robotnik needed to recover from his anger.

Sonic looked up at his enemy. "Man, you really _do_ look like an egg!"

"I DO NOT!"

Sonic decided to work with it. "Whatever, Eggman."

"What did you just call me!?"

"C'mon Egghead, cool the temper."

"SHUT UP!"

"Alright then, Eggy!"

The Doctor growled and tugged at his mustache in rage. "You're asking for it, rodent!"

Sonic smirked. "Bring it on, Eggman!"

The Doctor took a few deep breaths. "Alright then, Sonic. Meet The Hyper Gear Type 1!" He sat back down and pressed a button on his dashboard. The glass top of the craft returned as the rockets at the base of the machine sparked to life, and it rocketed up the gear tracks.

Sonic sprinted forward and ran up one of the pillars. It didn't take long for him to catch up with the Hyper Gear, and even less time to get ahead of it. As soon as he was a good distance ahead, Sonic turned to the inward side of the pillar and charged down the tracks. Already he had spotted a weak point: the Eggmobile was completely unprotected. "Don't mind if I do!"

He locked on the glass, curled up, and began to spin. He didn't see Robotnik smirk as he pushed another button on the dashboard.

Just before Sonic was going to hit the glass, the four gears released themselves from the tracks. The metal circle they were attached to bent and curled as the Doctor manipulated it, and the four gears locked together just above the hovercraft. Sonic didn't see this, however, and was caught by surprise when he found himself ricocheting off and heading for one of the pillars.

Sonic was able to gather himself, though. He managed to stop spinning and uncurled himself, and grabbed one of the track teeth just in time.

The Hyper Gear flew up to him, Robotnik pressed another button, and the gears rocketed directly towards him.

Luckily Sonic had fast reflexes. He dove down, aiming for the opposite pillar, but not before feeling an intense pain in his ear. "OWW!" One of the gears had snagged him just as he jumped off.

Sonic jumped back and forth between the pillars, racing down to the floor. As soon as he was low enough he slid down and leapt behind the pillar, out of the Doc's sight.

Cringing, he brought a hand to his right year. "Ow, ow!" He hissed in pain and groaned when he saw red seeping into his glove.

Okay, scratch Plan A. What about Plan B?

Tentatively, he peeked around the pillar, immediately ducking back when he saw the machine descending. It was then that he noticed the circle had turned into four long tentacles, each with a gear at the end. _Okay,_ Sonic thought. _A direct attack won't work with those gears and that circle thing-what kind of metal is that made out of, anyway!?-but maybe…_He smirked. _Maybe they can't reach all the way to the bottom. Those rockets!_ He looked around again, those rockets attached to the base were fairly small but they gave off a powerful flame, so the metal had to be very strong. _But maybe if I hit just one of them again and again…but how can I do that without getting noticed?_

He remembered Tails' words from last night. "_You can't run so fast that you turn invisible!_"

_Well buddy, I guess I'll have to prove you wrong!_

Sonic jogged in place for a moment, heating up his legs, before taking off at a full sprint towards the rocket on the right side. He homed in on it and spun into it, slamming and bouncing off of it.

The attack caused the who machine to wobble. Robotnik yelled in alarm and leaned forward. "Where are you!?" He began turning the Hyper Gear in a hovering circle, desperately looking for his enemy.

He thought he saw a streak of blue before the machine wobbled again. "SONIC!"

Every time he ricocheted off of the right-sided rocket, Sonic raced towards one of the pillars and whirled around, once again using the Super Peel Out, curling up and spinning seconds away from coming in contact with his target. Soon the metal on the rocket began to dent. Grinning, Sonic attacked again and again, feeling like he was going faster and faster with each attack. So fast, in fact, the scientist above could've sworn that Sonic vanished into thin air, just for a split second, and the cobalt hedgehog knew it, too.

"Oh, no you don't!" Robotnik pushed the level controlling the rockets all the way up to full speed, no longer trying in vain to follow the hedgehog. However, the damage done to the right rocket-especially the smashed rim-caused it to sputter a few times as the flames began building up inside. From below, Sonic smirked. _In three…two…one…!_

_**BOOM!**_

The flames were too much for the rocket to handle, and it exploded, sending the Hyper Gear tilting dangerously to the right with only one rocket working. Not only that, but the single rocket wasn't enough to hold the machine up, and it began to drift down.

_That'll keep him occupied, now all I have to do it get past those gears!_ Sonic sprinted up the pillar once more. Just as he caught up with the Hyper Gear, he found himself locking eyes with Robotnik.

"Go!" Robotnik sent all four gears flying towards the hedgehog. But only two were close enough to reach Sonic, thanks to the tilting.

Two gears was much easier to handle than four. Sonic leapt between the gears before they made contact with each other (and the wall). He skidded down one of the metal tentacles, dodging the other two gears when he was in range of them. Sonic charged right for the glass dome, he locked on, curled up, and spun into it again and again. Eventually he smashed it.

Robotnik covered his head has glass rained down on him. When he looked up, he saw Sonic standing right at the rim of the Eggmobile, tapping his foot and looking mischievous as he gazed down at all of the buttons and levers. Robotnik's eyes widened. "Don't. You. Dare."

"Oh, I'll dare!" And with that, Sonic began pushing as many buttons and kicking the levers as fast as possible. Robotnik tried to stop him by blocking the dashboard, but it only resulted him accidentally pushing more buttons as the Hyper Gear began to shake violently.

"You're going to overload the circuits!" Robotnik shouted.

"Duh."

"You idiot! If I disconnect the Eggmobile from this thing, the Hyper Gear with fall and explode upon impact, and if I don't both machines will explode from overload! Either way, the explosion will set off the entire ship!"

"…Oh. Well then, we'd better go, Eggman!" And with that, Sonic raced up towards the skylight.

"Hey! You get back here! And my name is ROBOTNIK!" As soon as he dislodged the Eggmobile from the Hyper Gear, the machine began to cool down quickly. Unfortunately, the Hyper Gear had nothing to support it anymore-with one rocket destroyed and the other having ceased-and began to fall.

Sonic smashed through the skylight and landed onto the ship's roof. The wind tore at his fur-causing his injured ear to hurt even more-as he looked for a way to get out of here.

There! Sonic felt nothing but glee when he saw the Tornado coming to his rescue, with Tails piloting it and Amy standing between the top and bottom wings, clinging to the pole connecting them for dear life. Sonic waved and raced down towards them. As soon as the Tornado was close enough, Sonic jumped. He let out a wild whoop before he landed, skidding along the top wings. "Hey guys!"

"Let's get out of here!" Tails cried out, pulling on the control stick. The Tornado rapidly ascended, barely flying above the ship when the entire aircraft exploded.

There was a blinding light, Sonic, Tails and Amy all covered their eyes. The Tornado shuddered as it was pushed further upwards by the sudden updraft. Bits of the aircraft flying up and sinking into the bottom side of the plane.

Metal flew everywhere, landing all over the valley's fields and forests, flying high and then dropping down again. Even through his eyelids, Sonic still found the explosion to be horribly bright. He felt the sensation of being pushed as the plane continued to rise from the updraft, as well as feeling the intense heat.

And then it was over.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing Sonic saw was Robotnik flying away in the remains of the Eggmobile. Despite the damage, it was still moving pretty fast, and soon the Doctor could no longer be seen.

"Well, I'd say that worked out _wonderfully_, wouldn't you agree, Doctor?" Orbot asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Shut up."

"Oh MAN, did you see that explosion!? That was so awesome! It-hey!" Robotnik promptly shut Cubot up by pressing down on his head, forcing him to close up.

"And for your information, things worked out quite well!" Robotnik snapped at Orbot. "Now I know just how strong Sonic is! All I have to do is make some minor revisions so my plans. Everything went just as I wanted it to! And pretty soon, my Empire will be so strong that Sonic won't know what hit him!"

"Whatever you say, _Eggman_."

"SHUT UP!"

The Tornado landed clumsily in the small river that snaked its way around the valley. Its buoys had completely deflated from the bits of red metal embedded in them. So the Tornado just sank into the sandy bottom, water washing over the bottom wings. It didn't matter, the plane needed to be repaired, anyway.

As soon as they landed, Sonic felt exhaustion wash over him. The minute he stepped off of the wings he flopped down in the grass. "Man…"

Amy kneeled down next to him. "What happened to your ear?"

"Huh? Oh, that." Sonic shrugged, "It's nothin', just a scratch."

"A scratch?" Amy's voice rose. "You're ear's almost sliced off!"

"Pfft!" Sonic snorted. "Just a flesh wound." He let out a yelp of protest when Amy roughly pulled him up, pulled him towards the river, and pushed him back down. "I think you're gonna have to get stitches." She said, concerned. "In the meantime…" She cupped her hands and dipped them in the water, not caring about her gloves. "Tilt your head towards me."

Tentatively, Sonic did what she said, and yelled in pain when Amy poured the freezing water on his injured ear. "Don't do that!"

"Oh, I'm just trying to clean you up." Amy replied. "C'mon now, you can take this, you're the Hero of Mobius!"

Hearing that, Sonic obediently tilted his head once more, gritting his teeth as Amy poured handful after handful of freezing water on his ear.

Tails came over, looking over Amy's shoulder, gasping in horror when he saw the blood dripping out of Sonic's ear. "Sonic!"

Sonic chuckled. "Oh, it's nothing, bud. It could've been a lot worse."

He said the wrong thing. Amy dropped the water she was holding back into the river and glared daggers at him. Tails was looking at him with an expression as close to a glare as he could get to.

"Yes, it could have!" Amy snapped. "You could've been killed!"

"And we wouldn't have been able to say goodbye!" Tails added.

"You just went and took off, without saying a single thing to us! Not an explanation, not a goodbye, nothing!"

Sonic flinched. "Yeah…I'm sorry about that. But if I didn't hurry Eggman's ship would've reached the city."

Amy's anger briefly turned to confusion. "Eggman?"

"Oh, right." Sonic cringed again as he felt another splash of water on his ear. "Robotnik's gone through a makeover." He couldn't help but start laughing. "You guys should've seen him, he looked like a giant talking egg! And he kept yelling at me about it, and I came up with some nicknames! Eggman, Egghead, Eggy…" Pretty soon Sonic was just lost in laughter, which actually helped lessen the pain in his ear.

Despite his irritation, Tails couldn't help but start giggling at the image of Robotnik as a giant egg. It didn't help that Sonic's laugh was pretty contagious.

Amy found it a little easier, given her rage, but she couldn't keep the grin from playing on her lips. _You two are idiots._

Once the three calmed down, Sonic suddenly remembered something. "By the way Tails, while I was in there I _did_ turn invisible from running so fast. Ha! Can't call me a liar, now!"

"Yes I can," Tails objected. "I never saw you turn invisible."

"What, you can't go by my word?"

"Nope."

"…Dang."


	9. Chapter 9

**SONIC EARTH**

**IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN**

**CHAPTER 8: WHAT NOW?**

"Owowowowowow! Ow! OW!"

"Calm down, we're almost through."

"Well, thank Mobius for that! What brand of torture is next?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

The Overlander doctor glared at him. "Hey, I know it's no fun, Hero, but it has to be done. In the meantime a little respect, please."

"Okay, okay. Sorry." Sonic tried his best to sound sorry, but it was hard after what he'd gone through the past half hour. First there was the brief panic of seeing a huge patch of blood around his ear and being unable to feel it (The doctor explained that he was too distracted by his pain to feel his fur getting wet), then there was the examination, where they _pulled his ear_ to see how big the slice was (it was almost halfway across his whole ear), then there was the cleaning (at least the water from the river helped speed that up), and finally the stitching (It took Sonic all of his willpower to try to not flee).

Amy stood by the door, leaning against it. "Serves you right." She muttered. "You were so selfish today!"

"Ow!" Sonic flinched again as the needle slid through his skin. "Okay, explain to me how I was selfish. I saved everybody from Eggman!"

"I already told you!" Amy snapped. "You scared me and Tails half to death! You gave us no warning whatsoever, you just decided to run off like we were nothing! Do you know how awful that feels? Do you know how much Tails cares about you? How much _I_ care about you!? How could you treat us like that!?"

Both Sonic and the doctor stared at her in shock. Amy looked like she was about to say something else, but instead she just yelled "Just forget it!" and took off for the waiting room.

The doctor cleared her throat and resumed the final stitches. Sonic just stared at the door, not even feeling the needle anymore.

"Alright, Sonic. You're done." The doctor snipped away the remaining thread. She placed thin strip of sticky, white bandage over the stitches. "I don't want you moving that ear though, understand?"

"Yeah."

"We'll remove the stitches in about a week or two."

"'Kay." Sonic slid off of the checkup table and followed the doctor to the waiting room. "Thanks, doc." Sonic said to her.

A small smile seemed to appear on her face. "Of course, Hero." She waved goodbye and headed back to her office.

"Hey-o!" Sonic opened the door. "Guess who's back and better than-whoa!"

He didn't expect that there'd be so many visitors. Tails and Amy were obviously there, along with the Rabbit family and Knuckles, Rotor the Walrus, Aerius and Kuro, even the Cabbage Merchant!

Sonic soon found himself surrounded. Tails, Cream and Cheese ran up to hug him, with Kuro tagging along, the dog trying to lick Sonic's face. Knuckles, Aerius, Rotor, and Vanilla came up after them. Knuckles, Aerius and Rotor all shook hands with him, and Vanilla gave him a tender hug. The Cabbage Merchant reluctantly patted him on the head, before heading off in a huff, still angry about his cabbages.

Sonic laughed a bit at all the attention. Weren't they overdoing it a bit? After all, it was just a scratch!

It was then that he saw Amy, she was standing against the wall, refusing to meet his eyes, her expression was angry as ever.

Sonic jumped when Aerius put a hand on his shoulder. "Go on, talk to her."

So, feeling everyone's eyes on his back, Sonic walked towards his friend. "Hey, Ames."

She still refused to meet his gaze. But she did open her mouth a little to give a small "Hey."

"You okay?"

"I'm _fine._"

"Oh, so 'fine' is storming out of the room and into the hall, I never knew that!" Sonic joked.

No reply.

Sonic sighed. "Amy, c'mon, talk to me! Why are you so still mad at me? I mean, I know _why_ but I don't know-"

"No, you don't." Amy cut him off, finally looking him in the eye. She took a deep breath. "Sonic the Hedgehog, do you know what it's like to not see someone in _four years_, and when you finally reunite the first thing they do is run away from you?

"I know I have a bad temper, and I shouldn't have brought my hammer out yesterday, but what you did…it really hurt. I mean _really_ hurt."

Sonic stood there, slowly feeling a wave of guilt run over him. He remembered yesterday. Him running from her and her 'hugs of doom' as he liked to call them, around the City Hall square. It was now that he realized that was borderline cruel. No, it _was_ cruel. It wasn't until after he realized she didn't outgrow her affection for him that he started to run. He didn't say hi, he didn't give her anything to show that they were friends except for a pathetic little wave. Sonic tried to imagine someone doing that to him. He couldn't get the picture in his head, but he could imagine just how much it hurt.

"Amy…I…" Sonic didn't know what to say. "But you seemed fine last night, apart from being distracted. But that was your fortune telling senses going nuts, right?"

Amy replied, "I lied…well, partly lied. I did have a funny feeling that something was coming, but I was also thinking of…"

"If you and me really are friends." Sonic finished. Amy looked at him, her eyes glistening with tears. The tears started coming down her muzzle as Sonic started speaking again.

"Amy, I…I'm so sorry, and I mean it. I acted like a complete idiot. You're right, I was being selfish." Sonic took a deep breath. "Especially when I didn't think to visit you like Tails and I visited Knuckles, until I heard you were in the same town." He sighed. "I'm such an jerk."

"Yeah, well…" Amy didn't finish her sentence.

"But I really do mean it when I say I'm sorry!" Sonic exclaimed. "But there's nothing I can really do to…" He trailed off. He didn't want to say they were friends. Not because he didn't like her, but because he had been terrible to her. If he said that they were friends, that'd be the worst thing he could say, because he'd never treat a friend like he treated her.

…Well, it was time to change that.

"Amy, I'm really, truly, sincerely sorry about this." Sonic murmured. "I was stupid, and selfish, and just…ugh. But…I want to make a fresh start." He held out his hand. "Can we be friends?"

Amy stared at his hand, then looked up into his eyes. This was her hero. They both knew it, and they both knew Sonic hadn't meant to hurt her.

So she took his hand-and pulled him into a hug, which he tentatively, but sincerely returned. "Don't think this means I won't stop chasing you." She said slyly. Sonic laughed a bit. "I should've expected that."

"And…maybe someday...we could…?"

"Maybe, just don't threaten me with that hammer!" Sonic held his hands up in mock terror. Amy laughed.

"Aww," Both hedgehogs were surprised at the sound of applause coming from everyone. Sonic grinned and took a playful bow, with Amy copying him.

There was still one thing he had to do, though. "Hey, Tails?" Sonic said. The kit looked at him, confused as the teenager walked over to him and knelt down so they were eye-to-eye. "Bud, I'm really sorry about just taking off like that earlier. I was just…" There really was no good excuse for it, he realized. He had taken advantage of his best friend, plain and simple. "I dunno."

"Selfish?" Knuckles offered.

"Stupid?" Amy giggled.

"Uh, yeah, those." Sonic smiled in embarassment. "I shouldn't have done that, I shouldn't have scared you. I'm really sorry, buddy. Can you forgive me?"

Tails smiled almost immediately. "'Course I can." Sonic found himself grinning widely, again. "Ah, that's my boy!" He playfully ruffled the kit's head fur and stood up.

"What, no apology for me?" Knuckles asked grumpily.

Sigh. "I'm sorry for annoying you yesterday. Can you forgive me?"

"I guess." The echidna shrugged stubbornly. Sonic shook his head. _I can't believe I used to have a crush on this guy…_

Suddenly, Sonic's stomach growled, reminding him he hadn't even had breakfast on this eventful morning.

Rotor chuckled. "Alright, let's all go get some breakfast. Then, Sonic, there are some financial things we need to discuss."

"_UNBELIEVABLE!_" Verne shouted the word so loud that both Sonic and Tails had to cover their ears. The potbellied Overlander was standing in his seat while all of his fellow council members had their faces buried in their palms.

"Do you know the damage that you have caused!?" Verne demanded, owl-eyes glaring directly on Sonic. "You destroy our streets, our city, our _entire valley!_ Hero of Mobius, my foot! You're nothing but trouble, Sonic the Hedgehog! Why, I should just go and-"

Sonic quickly covered Tails' ears as Verne went into a string of obscenities. As he yelled, his fellow council members' expressions all rapidly turned from exasperation to shock.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Verne collapsed in his chair, red in the face and panting. Sonic slowly uncovered his friend's ears and looked at Rotor. "So you brought me here so we could see a guy scream his lungs out?" He questioned.

Rotor sighed, flinching when Verne looked like he might go off on another rant. Thankfully he didn't, he was too winded. Rotor cleared his throat. "_Actually_, I brought you here so we could all discuss how we can get enough rings to pay for repairs and cleanup."

"Oh, yeah!" Tails nodded. "Knuckles suggested that me and Sonic can gather enough rings to pay it all off."

"Yep, rings aren't that hard to find." Sonic added.

Verne gave him a _look_. "Do you know how long it will take to gather enough rings to pay off all of the damages?"

Sonic couldn't help but smirk. "You're looking at the fastest thing alive, Verne."

Verne sighed. "Sonic the Hedgehog, it doesn't matter how fast you are. Rings are not the easiest things to come by in the wild! We need a more efficient way of gathering them."

Sonic's eyes widened in horror. "So…are you suggesting…?"

"That you two get jobs? Yes."

And with that, Sonic fell to the ground.

He was surprised to hear laughter. Sonic opened his eyes and saw Rotor quietly chuckling. "What's so funny? Me being tied to some job!? Having to show up at specific hours, doing the same thing again and again, day after day!? I can't handle THAT! Please, I'll do anything else!"

Verne rolled his eyes, while the Overlander woman-who was named Lily-and the otter-named Hazel-were looking at each other, half annoyed, have amused. Rotor just chucked. "Sonic, there is a variety of jobs. And I happen to know one that will suit you two very well."

Sonic couldn't ask, so Tails did it for him. "What's the job, sir?"

"Two words, Tails: Art shipping."

It wasn't hard for Tails to repair the Tornado. Rotor had taken them to an old windmill in the hills where they could make the repairs. As it turned out, Rotor was interested in mechanics too, and he was perfectly happy to help.

"This is quite the plane." Rotor said admiringly. Sonic grinned. "Thanks!"

"And this is yours, Sonic?"

"Yeah, kinda." Sonic shrugged, relaxing on a table, his back against the wall. "Although it's become more of Tails' plane, partly because I suck at piloting it."

Luckily there were only small pieces of metal embedded in the plane that were easy to pull out. Tails had salvaged some of the broken parts of the Tornado and manipulated them to fit over the holes in the metal. Meanwhile, Rotor replaced the damaged pieces and painted them red to match the older parts. Some of the screws had rusted over from the river, so they had to be replaced.

"Aren't you glad I got those screws, Sonic?" Tails asked, feeling rather proud of himself.

Sonic sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. You were right to be cautious." He stuck his tongue out in annoyance.

Unfortunately, the buoys just had far too many rips in them to be repaired. Instead Rotor kindly switched out the legs of the water-landing gear to ground-landing gear. He added a pair of strong, jet black wheels in the front, and another one in the back of the plane. The Tornado no longer stood straight, but stood at an angle from nose to tail, which would take some getting used to.

The repairing process took the entire day. While Sonic tried to help a little, but not too much since he'd probably destroy everything by accident. Instead, he decided to explore the windmill.

This windmill seemed much different than an average windmill. First off, it was huge. The bottom was a circular, stone wall with old tables and chairs, along with a stone floor and a single wooden door painted red. However, there was a long, spiraling, railed, wooden bridge that ran along the walls from the very bottom of the windmill to the very top, where there was a hatch to the roof. While it was old and dusty, there were a lot of windows, so at least it was a bright place.

"So, art shipping?" Sonic asked Rotor at one point. The walrus nodded. "The idea came to me a while ago. I figured that since you two have traveled so long and at such a fast pace, you'd like this job. In the meantime, while you come and go from the city you could live here in this windmill. It's large enough for _more_ than two people, and it can be cleaned up quite easily."

"And you just happened to have this job on standby?" Sonic asked, still unable to really believe they'd get a job this perfect.

"Well, kind of. We haven't had any means of transport or anybody to take the job in a long while, and that's why we couldn't really send our art out to people like we used to. But now, well, you know…" Rotor trailed off, before shrugging. "It just worked out. You can pay off everything with this job."

Sonic grinned. "Cool. Thanks, Rotor."

The walrus smiled, blushing.

Tails and Rotor had worked all day and night to fix the Tornado, along with making a few modifications to the windmill.

Emerging from the hill that the windmill sat upon was a large landing strip. Part of the windmill's wall split in two and pulled away from each other, allowing the new and improved Tornado to roll out into the morning air.

Sonic waited beside it, tapping his foot impatiently, until finally Rotor came running with a large envelope, with Amy following. "You're first shipment!" He called. "To be taken to the Southern Fields in Normanda!"

Tails emerged from the windmill. "The Southern Fields? Aren't there only a few houses there?"

"Yes, and this is to go to the 'Rabbots' ." Rotor looked at the tag on the envelope almost fondly. "It's to go to the house closest to the desert."

"No prob, if it's the house closest to the desert, then it should be easy to find!" Sonic commented. "But seriously, the _Rabbots_?"

"Oh, don't make fun of their name." Amy scolded.

"We received a request from them a long time ago, but we could never get word to them, let alone the contents of this package." Rotor grinned. "Oh boy, will they be surprised!"

Tails opened the fuselage of the Tornado, and Rotor carefully placed the cargo inside and closed the lid. "Good luck, you two!" He called.

Amy ran forward and hugged Sonic before he could stop her. "Be careful, Sonic!"

"Okay, Ames. I'll see you around."

"Okay, bye!" Amy ran back to Rotor, waving eagerly as Tails started up the plane. Sonic tapped his toes. They would have to cross the ocean to get to Normanda, but in the meantime they'd go along the beach, so Sonic could savor the running.

Amy and Rotor hurried towards the windmill, pressing against it as the winds began to whip up. The Tornado rolled down the landing strip, with Sonic running alongside it.

Sonic jumped and gripped one of the plane's poles as it took off. Both boys looked down as they flew over Amekari. Sonic tried to wave to a few people, but not one person waved back. He was even less popular now compared to yesterday. _Well, I guess I'm going to change that! _Sonic thought to himself.

As they neared the beach, Tails turned so they were flying east, and dropped down low enough so Sonic could jump off. Sonic grinned and gave his friend a thumbs up before jumping down onto the beach. He went all out with the Super Peel Out once more and raced Tails down the strip of land, enjoying the sun in his face and the wind in his fur.

There were multiple reasons Sonic was called the Hero of Mobius. Not only was it because of his super speed, or that he had destroyed the Death Egg and saved the world, but it was also because of who he was. Sonic may be stubborn and have a big ego, and he may be impatient as well, but in his heart was also a kind teenager who loved making people laugh and making things right.

These qualities would be essential to him in the future, when Mobius would need him more than ever.


End file.
